The Hound: Part 2
by Auul
Summary: The sequel to the my fanfic Digimon:the Hound
1. Chapter 1

It was something happened long ago…

In front of Plutomon was Jupitermon, whose once shinny golden armoro was now stretched and cracked; his hammers were on the floor, still flicking with the light of the very low remaining electricity. He was barely standing; instead he leaned on the wall to his right, keeping him from falling. Much as Jupitermon hated to admit, he'd lost the fight, and he couldn't imagine what would happen if he really lose.

That was why he had already prepared a backup plan.

Plutomon took a step forward, charged a sphere of energy in his hand. He could end the quarrel once and for all with Jupitermon's death, he thought, of as the situation seemed; nothing was on his way anymore.

Yet he was proven wrong right after the moment of his thought as shapes stepped out from the pinch black shadow behind Jupitermon. They were the rest eleven of the Olympos, or otherwise known as Jupitermon's reinforcement, for that moment.

The whole thing ended with Jupitermon's twisted victory. Trial was carried; the lost Plutomon was sentenced to be exiled, to the land which was considered as the main continent of the digital world, along with his power being taken and he returned to his champion form of Dobermon.

Years had passed since then, until now, he returned with what he had got from the Duke.

* * *

It had been a rough year for William.

First, the Olympos twelve that had ruled the land for ages was taken down by a group of rebels that came down from a violet light hole in the sky. The group was also consisted of twelve, led by a black digimon who called himself Plutomon. Not much had changed, actually; he still had to work hard to earn their living, which was not a common thing happened on a boy of sixteen, who should be sitting in the class room instead of working all day long as a builder.

The second thing was much more mysterious, and much more important, for it had anything to do with his own life. It happened months ago, when he accidentally discovered a special hand-held device (a fusion-loader) with his co-worker, Shoutmon, a short red dragon digimon. But the moment when William touched the device, Shoutmon's body changed, into a much taller golden being that he later leant as OmegaShoutmon.

Before he told anyone about his discovery, he was being hunted, by whom he recognized as Plutomon's fellow. In a rush, he made his journey of escape without a farewell with those he loved. He was lucky that he was accompanied by OmegaShoutmon and another boy, Preston, who was also on a run due to owning the same kind of device that William owned.

And for now, they were forced to be separated; William and OmegaShoutmon were being chased into the dark forest that surrounded the land he used to live.

"Willy, get down!" hearing his partner's warning, William ducked down into the high bushes while turned to see what happened. A glowing orange arrow jetted and shined its way through the pinch dark sky and hit a short tree. A fire was started; fortunately it didn't block William's way.

He then got up to his feet, and started running again; this was OmegaShoutmon's order, though the human never intended to leave anyone behind. Both of them knew too well that there's a great chance that they would be caught this time. Moreover, he didn't know what lay beyond the woods; it might only be another threat waiting for him. He rushed, and felt wave after wave of strong winds that were created by the movement in the fight between OmegaShoutmon and Kentaurosmon, their chaser. Both of them were twice as tell as William, so basically their huge movements would wave strong currents.

The noises of their steps and crashes were getting closer and closer to William, and it bothered the boy so much that he had to ignore his partner's words and turn to see the situation of the fight. He then saw OmegaShoutmon being thrown towards his direction; he held up his arms to cover his face from the strong air current that arose and also from the fear that OomegaShoutmon would crash on him. It seemed that fate was taking a special care of the boy that he did get into a crash; OmegaShoutmon flew over the boy's head and landed a few feet ahead from him.

Now that William was caught in between OmegaShoutmon and Kentaurosmon; it was one circumstance that OmegaShoutmon would never allow to happen, so he immediately got up and dashed towards Kentaurosmon, who was coming after the boy. Successfully he blocked the six-legged horse digimon right before he got his hand on William. The boy and his partner exchanged a look, then he took off again; OmegaShoutmon wasn't doing at all well in blocking Kentaurosmon; not much later he lost his grip on the horse and set it free to chase the boy; using all the strength he ran and caught up in front of Kentaurosmon and blocked him again. It repeated a few times until something magical happened.

A few miles ahead from William opened a glowing purple portal which its light shined straight up to the sky. From the moment, both William and OmegaShoutmon were determined to reach there, the thing that might lead to their escape.

* * *

One and a half year had passed since the battle with the royal knights.

Akio, the former leader of the digi-destined (which was not a team anymore) sat in the train along side with Metal Garurumon X. They were heading to the south part of the city, where a tournament was waiting for them the next day.

The red-haired boy peeked through the windows and watched the night view of this district. From his angle, the whole district was basically in his sight. The main part of it was a giant circular arena that looked extremely old-fashioned, like the Glatorian Arena from the bionicle 2009 series; one particular interesting feature was that the arena was lighted up by torches at night. Surrounding the arena was residents that were not much higher, and not very dense, that was why the arena could be seen from nearly every angle.

"It's kinda cool here, isn't it?" Akio mumbled, 'Modern lights and the old-fashioned fire torches being placed near; it's wired, but also cool."

"How can it be 'cool' with burning fire?" dotAgumon, who lived inside Akio's digivice, joked.

"Thought you'd gotten use to the views,' uttered Metal Garurumon, "You've been visiting here quite frequently over the last year, after all."

"None in this two months," Akio slipped out.

"Guess you miss her more than the views.' Said dotAgumon

"Yeah, yeah, you're the most correct.' Replied Akio dryly.

Soon the train arrived the finial station at the south. It was a long journey to travel from the east to the south, especially when one had to be trapped in a train, having nothing to do but chat for hours. Some people might be able to endure it, but unfortunately Akio could not, simply because he was active.

As they got off to the platform, the one that had been waiting for them- or they had been waiting to meet, was there in sight. She was Reiko, of course, the only one of the digi-destined who wasn't living in the east. Same as usual, her charming face was still the same, and so was her hairstyle, which had always been tied in a ponytail or some would consider it horsetail due to its length, and the white colour of her hairs was still as clean as usual.

"Hey," Akio greeted as he walked towards Reiko, "It's been a while."

"Yep," Reiko replied with a smile, "been missing me?"

"Kind of, sort of," Akio answered mindlessly as he looked round and found no trace of the girl's partnered digimon. "Where's HiAndromon?"

"At home, keeping guard."

After Metal Garurumon considered that they'd had enough private chat (which was actually not that privacy, due to the fact that dotAgumon was there on Akio's left arm, where he wore his digivice.), he approached to the boy and girl and interrupted their time.

"So, how've things been going?' he asked Reiko, after a long while since their last gathering.

"Kinda dull, actually," said the ponytail-girl with a bit of complaint, "same things goes on everyday. I really miss the adventure."

"Still busy handling your 'fan boys' at school?" Akio teased

"Apparently."

So the chat went on, until another interruption

"Do we really have to do an one hour talk here? At the platform, right in front of the train door where people will try to get in soon when the next train arrived?" dotAgumon pointed out.

"Yep, we'd better move along."

So on they went from the train station to Reiko's home, which was not an easily accessible place when you started from the station. Yet, it was very near the arena. They arrived there at about 11 pm, when Reiko suddenly remembered the right thing to ask.

"Have you had dinner yet?"

"Well, no." answered Akio cheerily, "got anything in stock for us?"

"Well, no." Reiko replied, using the same manner as Akio did for the irony.

"Guys," Akio announced, to the two of his fellow digimons, "we're heading into battle tomorrow with empty stomachs."

Then came only the sighs from Metal Garurumon and dotAgumon; not out of disappointment, though.

The first thing Akio and Metal Garurumon did after getting into the room was to take a seat, while Reiko walked into the kitchen straight and then started grumbling once she saw Akio's taking seat without asking.

"I try to find something for you to eat but you just behave like…" the sentence was broken by a heavy sigh.

"Like what?" the red head kidded as he walked close to Reiko, only to earn a glare from the girl. "Sorry." He immediately corrected.

Looking around while Reiko got her head deep in the shelf, Akio saw and heard no one other than Metal Garurumon in the apartment.

"Where's your dad?" asked Akio out of curiously.

"Out, working, probably won't be back in three days."

"So he left you alone?" Akio slipped out

Reiko glared at him again.

"You know, I'm eighteen, basically an adult, who is more capable of taking care of myself then you do. Besides, I've got HiAndromon."

"Speaking of him," Akio looked round again, and saw no trace of the black robotic digimon, "where is he?"

"Sleeping. He has a very regular time table." Said Reiko as she sprang out of the shelf and had the back of her head hit the nose of Akio, who was standing very close behind her.

"Ahh.." both of them uttered in pain, with Akio being the louder one, since hitting in the nose was more painful.

"You got what you deserve." Reiko whispered

Metal Garurumon watched them and laughed, though they didn't pay much attention to him.

"So what've you got for me?" asked Akio, holding his hurt nose.

The ponytail girl waved a few packs of biscuits in front of him and he took it. Reiko then turned and walked out of the kitchen.

"I'll just go take a shower and go straight to bed, take care yourself." She turned to Akio for one more time. "And don't you ever try to take a peek at me again."

"Ok." Akio suddenly found himself out of words. "Wait! How did you…"

"Guess who betrayed you?" Reiko's sound was now far away.

"Kin you little traitor." Akio whispered to himself.

* * *

The next morning, an unfamiliar and very polite voice woke Akio up. That was not Reiko, for certain, as that was man's voice. But it didn't sound like Metal Garurumon or dotAgumon. Slowly opening his eyes he found the one that stood in front of him was HiAndromon. Surprised, the red-haired boy sprang back and hit the bed; it was when he realized that he had been sleeping on the floor, but that matter didn't bother him much for now.

"Wow…" Akio uttered, "you…you talked ?!"

"Sir, I am here to wake you up under mistress's words." Stated HiAndromon

The room fell silent for a moment, while Akio had his eyes widened, with a weirdly confused look on his face.

"What seems to the problem, sir?" HiAndromon asked

"You…you never talk," Akio uttered, when Reiko entered the room.

"I'll handle here, now off you go." She told her digimon partner.

Tons of questions were asked, of course, after HiAndromon left and Metal Garurumon entered bringing Akio's digivice that contained dotAgumon.

"Ask one by one." Said Reiko, "And watch the clock, there's only an hour left before the tournament starts."

The time was of course enough, as they lived almost just right next to the arena.

"So, first, how come HiAndromon started to talk?" asked Akio hastily, he just got so much used to HiAndromon's old silence style.

The first thing out of Reiko's mouth was not answer, but question.

"Didn't Katsumi tell you?"

"Do I look not surprised?" Akio asked back

"She may just want to give you a surprise." Said Reiko after a brief moment of though, "Last time she came visit, her technician friend that came along help fixed HiAndromon's voice by the way. Anything else?"

"Why was I sleeping on the floor and I didn't realize it?"

"You should know that better than any one else." Reiko replied, crossing her arms, "I kicked you off bed, as usual. Why would you sneak on bed anyway?"

"Well you told me not to mess with you dad's room,"

The white-haired girl nodded.

"And Metal had occupied the couch," Akio continued, "so where am I gonna sleep? In the bathroom?"

"Doesn't sound bad." DotAgumon added in, and Reiko and Metal Garurumon couldn't help giggling. As for Akio, he just sighed.

"I though you two are so close that you had no problem sleeping tighter." Said Metal Garurumon, recovered from his giggling.

"We are, until Rei suddenly woke up midnight and decided to roll me or kick me off her bed."

HiAndromon walked in next.

"It's time to go, mistress."

* * *

Soon they arrived at the arena, where Reiko and Akio had to part their way.

"Guess it's time for me to move to the audience's seat." Said Reiko as she was about to leave Akio, "Good luck there."

"Thanks." Said Akio as he watched Reiko and HiAndromon vanished in the crowds

"So… let's give our best shot." Said Metal Garurumon to Akio

Then they stepped into the field and began the first battle of the tournament. It was an easy one, Metal Garurumon didn't even used his weaponries. It was followed by a several more battles, which were both ended with Metal Garurumon and Akio's victory; the opponents were tougher as more battles passed, yet the duo was never tired and kept on winning. Time flew and it was already the time for Akio to take on the finial round.

"In the next and the final round, we've got two youngest tamers participants…" As the narrative voice announced, Reiko got herself confused.

 _There_ _'_ _s someone ages around Akio_ _'_ _s?_ Thought she. Obviously she had put all her attention on the red head that she couldn't notice the other tamer who was as young, and as tough as Akio.

To get a better understanding, she took a look at the scoreboard, and found out that Akio's opponent was no somebody, but one of her classmate (who evidently gained no attention from her.).

"Samuru Inaba…" uttered Reiko surprisingly as she saw her classmate entering the field.

Samuru, the teen boy with seriously pointy black hair and a pair of small brown eyes, walked in with his digimon partner, the crimson armored dragon that armed with heavy weapons, Chaosdramon.

"Beat them, and we get the ticket to the championship." Akio mumbled

Once the battle started, Akio and Metal Garurumon exchanged a look before taking any action, while Chaosdramon already had his back cannons flipped out and crouched himself forward, as light could be seen in the cannons' barrels.

"Seems like we've ourselves a hasty opponent." Metal Garurumon murmured, then said to Akio, "Sure about our strategy?"

"Yeah, just get on with it." the boy replied impatiently

"Hyper Mugen Cannon!" Chaosdramon fired his cannons, but by the time, Metal Garurumon had already flown away.

The blue digimon flew along track the outer circle of the field as Chaosdramon kept turning left to track him down; Metal Garurumon then increased the output of the thrusters and went fast beyond Chaosdramon's reaction time, and then suddenly he turned and jetted straight towards Chaosdramon's side. As if using himself as a cannon ball, Metal Garurumon slammed onto the crimson dragon and knocked it off while still maintaining himself well balanced and landed. There he stood, waiting until Chaosdramon got back up.

The act was out of Akio and Metal Garurumon's pure intention of fighting fair, yet it pissed Samuru off greatly, as he believed that both sides should do their best to get the chance of participating in the championship, and it seemed like they didn't take the competition seriously.

Maddened and angered, he had Chaosdramon used another attack.

"Chaos Crusher!"

The claws on his right arm were extended, and sprayed out like an opened palm. In a sudden, all Metal Garurumon's eyes could catch was the light reflected by the claws; the next instant, his right arm was already grabbed by Chaosdramon. The saw like edges of Chaosdramon's claws made a very irritated noise when it was running through Metal Garurumon's armor. As the sound grew louder and the sparkles grew brighter, Metal Garurumon couldn't help worry about the fate of his arm despite his optimistic nature.

All he could think of was glare back to Akio, and he did so. As soon as the red head received his partner's signal, he grabbed a card and slid it along the track on his digivice to activate it.

"Cocytus Breath."

The shoulder cannon of Metal Garurumon was lowered down and aimed at Chaosdramon, then fired a beam of freezing energy at Chaosdramon. It hit the red machine's shoulder, forced him to let go of Metal Garurumon.

Once freed, Metal Garurumon began wave after wave of rapid close combat which gave Chaosdramon no chance to withhold or counter.

 _Come on, Metal, finish it quick._ Thought Reiko as the battle started to get prolonged. Even she was just sitting among the audiences, she could feel the tension getting on her nerve. The only other thing she could think of was to wonder Akio's feeling down the field.

More minutes passed, and finally Chaosdramon was kicked onto the ground and couldn't get back up.

"Hu~sh" Akio sighed out of his relief as Metal Garurumon walked back to him.

"We did it."

"Yeah, it's kinda hard to believe." Said Akio, still excited about his achievement.

All that was left to do was to wait for the narrative voice to announce Akio and Metal Garurumon's victory. Yet, before that happened, a gleam of bright violet light that came from the center of the arena overpowered the afternoon's sunlight and almost blinded everyone.

"Purple again!" Uttered Akio, "can it be…?"

"Guess you're right." dotAgumon mumbled

As the violet light was weakened, a portal, Plutomon's, could be seen in the middle of the field. Out ran a young boy, and seconds later, a Kentaurosmon entered the arena from the portal and was chasing after the running boy.

"Oh yes, it's him again."

* * *

 **From the author:**

 **So good to be back~**

 **Because of multiple reasons, I might not be able to do a weekly update this time, but I'll try my best to keep up with the progress, so wish me luck.**

* * *

 **New look for Akio:** **gipakll .deviantart .com**

 **/art/ Akio-book-2-561331868**

 **And of course Reiko: gipakll .deviantart .com**

 **/art/ Reiko-book-2-561331751**

 **More artworks (related to this book or not, but mostly related) will be uploaded on gipakll .deviantart .com**

 **So that sums up the announcement, thank you.**


	2. Chapter 2

Surely it felt like an old friend named trouble had came back for Akio.

He, as well as Metal Garurumon, stared at the portal, Kentaurosmon for a while, then turned their attention to the boy that Kentaurosmon was chasing after, who had just ran passed them and disappeared at the exit of the arena.

And then the portal closed, and Kentaurosmon shot an arrow at the exit. It exploded as soon as arrow hit the wall just right next to the exit; the sound of the fire and falling bricks brought another experience of shock and terra to the already alerted and somehow horrified audience. Some started to recognize that Kentaurosmon was one of the eleven digimons that attacked the east district about a year ago, but most of the crowd was running at every direction, shouting and screaming in horror and panic. It was truly a mess up on the audiences' place; luckily Reiko and HiAndromon were in the very front seat and as things started to get out of control, she already had her partner carried her and jumped down to the field to join Akio.

"What's the play here?" she asked once reached the red head

By that time dotAgumon had gotten out of the digivice as the form a stream data and reformed himself as WarGerymon, standing next to Akio.

"We don't know yet." He answered.

Kentaurosmon had fallen silent, perhaps searching for his pray, but soon he moved, as if he was done searching in the field and wanted to get out of there, and he took the most violent method- taking out his arrows and pointed it at a random direction to shoot a way out of the building.

As the first arrow was fired, the three digimons on Akio and Reiko's side took their action. WarGerymon flew towards Kentaurosmon and stood before him, showed the six-legged horse the axe of MedievalDukemon (while WarGerymon had his claws hung on his shoulders for storage.), which was taken after the Death of the Duke.

"Remember this?" he asked, hoping Kentaurosmon would somehow remember his old friends. Yet, he remained indifferent and shot another arrow, which was blocked by WarGerymon's axe.

The shot marked the beginning of the fight. Metal Garurumon took his position of long-range support, while WarGerymon kept Kentaurosmon occupied with close combat and HiAndromon assault from Kentaurosmon's behind.

"Feels like I'm out of use now." Uttered Metal Garurumon as he saw WarGerymon and HiAndromon were doing extraordinarily good. Still, he had all his guns and missiles readied.

"It reminds me how they outnumbered us." Said Reiko as she joined Akio and Metal Garurumon. The three of the rather free watched as Kentaurosmon was either too busy handling WarGerymon and got hit by HiAndromon, or too busy dealing with HiAndromon that he couldn't prepare for WarGerymon's attacks.

Everything was going very smooth, Kentaurosmon would soon be captured, until suddenly came the beam from the long forgotten Chaosdramon, which missed its target and hit WarGerymon instead. It left a huge hole on WarGerymon's left shoulder's armor with edges of glowing bright orange and smoke coming out from it. It happened too fast that the pain didn't reach him the first two seconds after bring hit, but when it did, WarGerymon fell on the ground and yelled in pain, and soon he transferred himself back into Akio's digivice.

"Switch." He forced the words out of his mouth.

"Time to go." Metal Garurumon rushed towards Kentaurosmon, firing his gatling gun on his way. It didn't really hit Kentaurosmon, but was enough to drive him back from kicking HiAndromon with his front legs.

In the meanwhile, Akio rushed to Samuru, the tamer of Chaosdramon. And the first thing he spoke- or shouted at him was "What the hack are you doing!?"

"I was just trying to help!" Samuru argued.

"If you really want to help, just get out of the way!"

"So you're saying that it's wrong to try helping?!"

"Shooting aimlessly is supposed to be helping?"

"Chaosdramon wasn't shooting aimlessly!"

"Just STOP IT! You two!" Shouted the late coming Reiko, more fierce than Kentaurosmon perhaps, that both boys were scared to silence.

"Akio!" she turned to Akio, "You get back to the fight and give Metal any support he needs."

"Ye…yes."

"And you, Samuru Inaba!"

"Yes?" replied the shocked-to-frozen Samuru

"You go up there and calm the crowd."

"What?" uttered Samuru at first, but then he changed his mind as he earned a grim glare from Reiko.

"Yes, getting right on it." Immediately he took off as he finished talking.

"You know him?" asked Akio as he saw Samuru left.

"Yep, classmate." Replied Reiko, "Now focus."

Meanwhile, Kentaurosmon was stepping on HiAndromon with his front legs at very high speed. The armor of HiAndromon was enough to resist the attack for some time, though. Metal Garurumon was on the side, firing at Kentaurosmon, hoping to drift his attention. He succeeded, yet the result turned out to be quite different than he had expected; now an angered Kentaurosmon was charging at him unstoppably, Metal Garurumon naturally increased his firepower and fired more fiercely at Kentaurosmon. Then the horse leaped to avoid the attacks, in that instant an idea suddenly came up to Metal Garurumon. In the second when Kentaurosmon was airborne, Metal Garurumon started his thrusters at full power, and jetted his way under the leaped horse to the other side.

When Kentaurosmon turned back, Metal Garurumon and HiAndromon already had all their weapons readied, pointed at the crimson six-legged horse that was cornered. Though mad, Kentaurosmon didn't dare do anything that would trigger the gunfire of Metal Garurumon and HiAndrmon.

"So what now?" asked Reiko

"It's weird," mumbled Akio, "aren't them 'unkillable' ? why would he just stood there?"

Suddenly another portal opened behind Kentaurosmon; nothing came out, and in went Kentaurosmon, and then it was closed.

Both Akio and Reiko immediately relaxed with relief. "So that's it?"

Some times later that day, Samuru returned to the field to meet up with Reiko and Akio. In his arms held a teenage boy, unconscious. The boy had mid-length black hair, wearing a black vest that exposed his quite muscular arms. In one of his hand was a red device that none of them had ever seen.

"Guess he's the one out from the purple light." Said Samuru

Akio and Reiko took a closer look at the boy, nothing quite different from an ordinary kid, except for not wearing winter clothing.

"What's that?" asked Akio, pointing at the unconscious boy's left hand.

"This?" Samuru took the device out of the boy's hand, yet didn't notice something dropped from his hand too.

"What's it?" Akio murmured, holding the red device and carefully checking it.

While the boys were checking on the device, Reiko picked up the tiny thing dropped from the unconscious boy's hand. It was some kind of a chip, with an image of a digimon that she had never seen printed on it, along with the printed words "Shoutmon". Turning the chip around, some hand-written marks could be found on it, written as "William".

Reiko then talked about her discovery, and asked dotAgumon if he knew any species as "shoutmon". The answer was an excepted yet disappointing 'no'.

* * *

The event was ended by sending the boy who was temporally named William to the hospital, and the party's answering a few tons of questions from the police. By the time they went home, the sun had already gone down and everyone was exhausted, especially the digimons. Once Metal Garurumon occupied the couch, he didn't feel like moving any of his muscles; dotAgumon was resting inside Akio's digivice, and while HiAndromon was tired too, he was still at Reiko's service at any time.

"Thanks, HiAndromon," said Reiko, "I really appreciate it, but you can just take a rest if you feel tired, and if you don't feel like resting, please do me a favor and watch after Metal and dotty. Me and Akio will go out for dinner for quite some time."

"As you ordered, mistress."

"That's not an order…" Reiko sighed and whispered to herself

"We'll bring you guys something to eat." Said Akio to the digimons before going out.

The two ended up dinning at a very fine restaurant, as the prize Akio won from the tournament was more than enough. Before their dishes arrived, they had plenty of time chatting. First Reiko commenting Akio and Metal Garurumon's performance in the tournament, then the content was developed into random stuffs, and then to the plan of the night.

"So what do we do after dinning?" asked Akio, too tired to think of any plan.

"Just go back home and sleep, I guess." Replied Reiko, "and… you can share my bed, just for tonight."

That didn't seem to surprise Akio much. "Actually why won't you let me sleep with you before, we did that a lot when we're children."

"Which we're not anymore." Reiko replied at once, "Things changed, now when you're sleeping by my side, my heart pumps and I can't get good sleep." She lowered her sight at the table.

"Then why…"

"Cause I won't let a tired you sleep on the hard floor or squeeze yourself to fit the couch, but I won't let you in daddy's room either." said Reiko quickly, her sight still at the table.

"Actually what's in that room?" asked Akio, sifting the topic; Reiko acted way too nervous when talking about feeling issue. Even though she lowered her head and her face was shadowed, Akio could still observe the redness on her face.

"Please don't make me say it again," Reiko brought up her head, back to normal. "that's non of your businesses."

"Yeah, yeah, got that."

And so things went on pretty smooth. After dinner, they took a casual walk in the west district since there's still time. And when they decided to go home, they stopped by a fast food shop to buy things for their digimons. Everything was well, until midnight.

* * *

Meeting Kentaurosmon back on that morning had triggered Reiko to remember the last battle with the royal knights, in which she nearly lost her life or severely injured. The event didn't bother her much since she ignored the memory and hid it deep in her brain, but now it came back to her as a nightmare and surprisingly woke her up.

Sprang up from the bed and gasping for air, and feeling her heart jumped with fast beat. After a few second to calm herself, she found that she curled up unintentionally, then felt a wave of chill hitting on her like a snake crawling on her skin. And then she noticed, that she was all wet, covered in sweat, her sweatshirt was now really a sweated shirt. Feeling colder, Reiko took off the shirt and set it aside, and pulled the blanket up to her shoulder.

"What's… it?" Akio mumbled as he was unwillingly waken up by the mess Reiko had made. Throw away the shirt that was somehow placed on his face, he rose up only to see the shirtless Reiko, though in the dark he really couldn't see much.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Just a bad dream, or memory." She was somehow laughing, he could hear it from her voice.

"Doesn't sound that bad at all," uttered Akio as he leaned close to Reiko, shoulder to shoulder.

"It was about one and a half years ago, when you and Metal were left in the digital world, we fought the royal knights, and I was nearly killed."

"What!?" Akio immediately covered his mouth after the shout, and prayed that he didn't wake the digimons up. "You'd never mentioned it. And why're you laughing at it?"

"I'm laughing at what came next," answered Reiko, "When the bricks were about to hit me, the one person called for was you." She let out a small laugh again, "I must really fancy you."

Then she moved even closer to Akio, "gezz, it's cold."

Akio wrapped her with his arms and stuck her back to his chest, and rested his head on her shoulder and whispered to her ear, "of course, you're shirtless."

There was a long silence in the room before Reiko spoke again. "When will we have a night like this again?"

"Probably a few months later, when the championship starts, and I'll have to come here for a few days."

Reiko turned and faced Akio up close, "I'm gonna miss you."

"I'm gonna miss this too."

"This?"

"Yeah," Though not seeing much, Akio still closed his eyes, and kissed Reiko, on the lips. "this."

* * *

The next day was Akio's party's last day in the south. Since Reiko had to go to school, the day was pretty boring and Akio didn't even bother go out. On the morning, he had wakened up late and by that time Reiko was already out. He could only wish that he could saw her before he left in the evening.

It was both a bless and a curse that he'd finally done enduring the boredom of the day, but had to be separated with Reiko for some while.

"You still have us." said Metal Garurumon to Akio as they were waiting for the train.

Akio didn't reply, only kept staring at the gateway, hoping that Reiko would somehow be there to part him.

DotAgumon sighed and joked, "I remember the good old times before you're in love."

"What? Now's not good?" surprisingly, Akio replied

"Think she can catch up in time?" Asked Metal Garurumon, looking at the notice board that reminded them the train would arrive in no time.

"I hope so." Akio still had his eyes on the gateway.

And then there she was, rushing, and was still in her school uniform: simple white shirt and black coat and long dress, and it looked very messy right on that moment.

As she reached Akio, she was desperately gasping for air, had her hands on her knees, and couldn't speak. Akio had to hold her arms to help her stand, after a few seconds; Reiko recovered and started talking, still catching for her breath.

"Sorry, I'm late."

"It's okay as long as you're here."

By that time the train had already arrived and was about to leave, Reiko had to make the farewell short and quick, so she just said "good luck back there." with much love in the words. Then she leaned herself on Akio and kissed him, before he finally stepped into the train along with Metal Garurumon.

"See you soon." The red head turned at last before the train door closed and said to Reiko.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, what about that Akio Nogami," May asked Reiko, "the guy that you kissed at the train station?"

Four days had passed since Akio went back to the east district, everything was back to normal, and Reiko was hanging out with one of her best friend, May, when she suddenly asked the question that she couldn't handle at once.

"How did you?" asked Reiko, flushed.

"Nice to see your face so red." May leaned closer to look at her friend's pinkish cheeks. "And no, I didn't track you, I just passed by there by chance."

"But how do you know who he is?"

"Seriously?" asked May in surprise, as if the usually intelligent Reiko had just became the dumbest person in the world. "He's in the tournament, on TV, I can recognize him."

Now Reiko really found herself stupid to have asked such a question and could think of no respond. May seemed to have noticed Reiko's embarrassment and as such, she tried to make things easy, for the sake that the chat could continue before the next lesson began.

"So, can you tell me more about him?"

"Uhh… he's a nice guy, he's funny and cool." Said Reiko after a bit of consideration

"You know every girls say these stuff about their boyfriends." Responded May almost right before Reiko was finished.

"And you know I can't really tell you much." Replied Reiko. She could still remember the last time when she told May about her time in the digital world, everyone at school came to her and asked for more details the next day. Her friend there simply could withhold no secret.

"I'm not gonna say anything," said May as if she knew what Reiko was thinking, "it won't do anything good."

Reiko placed her thumb and index finger on her chin, considered for a moment, then answered, "still no."

"Come on," May started to beg, "try thinking this way, if everyone still thinks you're single, you'll still be surrounded by boys, and I might be able to hook up one of them when hanging out with you."

"Well that'd be horrible." Said Reiko dryly without even thinking, " why would you want to anything anyway?"

"Curious,"

"About him?"

"About you." By that time they had already returned to the corridor that leads to their classroom. "c'mon, I won't say a word about it."

Finally Reiko agreed to tell her just one or two more things about Akio, she couldn't risk telling much, even with May's promise.

"So, he's my childhood friend, and"

"And?"

"Swear you won't over react," said Reiko, suddenly turned very seriously.

"What's it?" Now May found herself really want to know it, more than anything.

"Swear first!" said Reiko very quickly.

"Ok, I swear I will not over react, won't scream, won't shout, won't burst out laughing, won't do anything that attract anyone and cause their curiosity. Is that good enough?"

"Okay," Reiko took a deep breath, then started talking, faster than anything she'd ever said, hoping that May would miss it. "he's younger than me."

"Wow!" exclaimed May, in a controlled volume though, "that's just…"

"He's just a year younger than me." Whispered Reiko loudly, she needed to stop her friend before she forgotten her promise. "Now everything's clear, I just want to prepare for the next lesson quietly." She had already got half of her body into the classroom, when someone grabbed her left arm and pulled her away.

"Seriously? Again?" without even turning to see the one that grabbed her, Reiko could tell it was Samuru who did this to her. Ever since the tournament, he had been asking Reiko for more information of the attack, for she didn't act like a normal person that day, she was as if she'd seen stuff like that before. Reiko was being brutally dragged to the corner of the corridor and now had to face the annoying Samuru yet again.

"Can't you be less rude?" said Reiko, lightly rubbing her left arm, "that's not how you treat a girl!"

"I don't care." Said Samuru meanly.

"And I don't care if you know anything." Whispered Reiko, she actually scared if that would enrage the violent boy. "Maybe that's why you can't get any girls, or even friends."

"Just tell me what's with that attack!" Samuru shouted at Reiko as he pushed her towards the wall. Now she's really scared, and pain. "I know you were there two years ago in the attack in the east district, and I know that's related to the attack in the tournament. So you'd better say something about it."

 _Actually that_ _'_ _s one and a half years ago._ Thought Reiko. "You can't get anything out of me anyway, why don't just let me go and we can both attend our classes on time."

Samuru had his teeth squeezed tight like a wild animal, seemed angrier. He looked like he wanted to strike down Reiko. In fact, he had already held up his right hand and was ready to drop it and slap the white-haired girl, only to have it grabbed by May from behind.

"I wouldn't do it if I were you." She warned, "I'm ready to call the counselor, but are you ready to face him?"

Samuru simply shook off May's grip and turned to walk away.

 _In time, you_ _'_ _ll know it_ _'_ _s best for you to know nothing._ Thought Reiko as she watched Samuru walked away.

"You o'kay?" May's voice brought her back into reality.

"Uh… yeah." Answered Reiko mindlessly

"What's going on between you two, anyway? He'd been harassing you for days." asked May, "He's your ex?"

"What?!" surely May's conclusion surprised her more than seeing the return of the royal knights. "It's nothing important. We should attend the class by now." With that she left in a hurry.

* * *

The class soon came to an end, normally Reiko would go straight back home or hang out with her friends, but today she was really bothered by Samuru, and his repetitive mention of the tournament had really gotten on her nerve that she decided to pay the William boy a visit in the hospital. After all it's not very nice to be chased by one of Plutomon's knights, and the chance of getting attacked again was obviously there. Either she was to find out the secret the he withheld, or to protect him who was supposed to be still unconscious, it'd be best to check him out.

Reiko contacted HiAndromon immediately after school and they were soon companied. Without wasting any time they soon arrived at the hospital.

And then she regretted her decision immediately.

There's nearly nothing she could do there except for checking for the boy's states, but that was just not much to do. A brief scan of the room could give her more than enough information that William was still in a coma, or at least unconscious. The staff there told her that he'd been the same for the past few days so the chance of him being merely in sleep was not there.

"Can't you just wake up and tell me something." Muttered Reiko, "if you're being hunted by our old 'friend', I need to know more, in case his sinister mind gone too far again."

She took a seat on the chair next to the bed, then got her elbows on her knees and supported her head with both hands on the chin. "And why would Plutomon open a portal to lead you to us?"

There they stayed for a few minutes longer. Just as Reiko was about to take her leave, an alarm broke out. It was not the kind of alarm that warns a fire, it was the other kind that was rarely used, the kind that warns wild digimon attacks.

Yet she knew very clear that the intruder was not a wild digimon.

"It must be coming for him." Waggling their way against the evacuating current through the busily occupied corridor, Reiko and HiAndromon returned to the room that contained William and all his belongings. He was still in his long sleep.

"Ah… what do we do now?" Reiko mumbled. Judging from the scale of the evacuation, the attack would most likely be a real nasty one, though she couldn't even spot the attacker.

And that was when the sound of explosion cracked through the floor. Nothing was quite damaged, the actual explosion happened out side the building. Peeking through the broken window, Reiko saw fire on the other side of the building.

"Guess we should head there."

Though she didn't want to, she left William unprotected and started taking action. While all other people were panicking, she and HiAndromon grabbed the chance to use the workstation computer there. HiAndromon connected himself to the computer and quickly scanned through the data, soon he got his hand on the building's blueprint and leaded Reiko to where the fire rose.

As predicted, they intercepted their foe in the midway of their route, only to find out that the digimon they were facing was no minions but one of the knights, Magnamon. Reiko trembled before she realized she was doing so; Magnamon was the one that nearly got her killed, after all.

"Yet he is the weakest link of the knights." HiAndromon pointed out to reinstall Reiko some confidence.

"No," uttered the girl, now back to normal, "for now, dotty is the weakest."

"I need an attack plan." Said HiAndromon as Magnamon was getting closer step by step.

"I say we do close combat." Suggested Reiko, considering that their opponent's main attacks were long ranged attack. "And look for his digi-core." She then used some cards.

"Lightning Blade, Speed Plug-in B."

Two shiny glowing blue blades with visible electricity extended from each of HiAndromon's fore arms. It resembled much of his ultimate form's attack, but now in his mega form, the power of the move also increased. HiAndromon then turned into a cyclone of blackness and surrounded Magnamon, follow up with continuous sounds of metal colliding. Both digimons didn't talk much; so there was no battle cry at all, just different pinches of metallic noise.

Later HiAndromon returned to Reiko's side. Without his attacks hindering the sight, Magnamon could be seen undamaged; his armor still shinny and gold.

"Damn it!" Reiko groaned

And then Magnamon's Armor started to glow. She could recognize it; it was the charging of his attack called Magna Blaster. If he was left untouched, seconds later a huge energy wave would be blasted from Magnamon's armor and blown pretty much everything in front of him into pieces. In the instant that Reiko had to come up with a plan to stop him, she spotted that one place on his armor wasn't glowing; it was a small spot on his right shoulder.

Yet there's no time to study the spot that seemed to be Magnamon's weak spot as the Magna Blaster was fired; HiAndromon rushed forward to block it with his body, while Reiko used the defense plug-in card to help him lower the damage.

Everything was bright white the moment the attack hit HiAndromon, seconds later Reiko moved her hand away from her eyes and slowly opened her eyes. She saw HiAndromon had fallen on his knees, lots of his black armor pieces were cracked, some parts of his body revealed the red and blue cables as well as the shiny silver skeleton along with a lot of mechanic parts that Reiko couldn't name.

While Magnamon was cooling down, Reiko ran as fast as she could towards HiAndromon.

"We have to retreat." She mumbled as she tried to bring HiAndromon up. There's no way she could do it; her sense told her that every smoking pieces of armor were way beyond hot and would cook her hands to well done the second she touched him.

And it seemed that HiAndromon wouldn't be able to get up on his own for some while. But Magnamon had already recovered and was on his way toward William, totally ignored Reiko and HiAndromon on his way.

It was when another beam shot horizontally from the broken window's way; Magnamon stopped just in time before walking into the beam. Reiko stumbled to her right; the beam hit the wall that was just inches from the left of her face.

Then the beam faded, and look through the broken window Reiko saw the familiar red machine- Chaosdramon. All the pieces of the event came together in her mind and formed a pretty reasonable conclusion. The explosion wasn't made by Magnamon alone, it was formed when Samuru and Chaosdramon were fighting the intruder. And why would they be at the hospital? It can't be…

"Samuru Inaba! You've been following me? you sick son of a-" Reiko's words were being cut off by the sound of another blaster from Chaosdramon, not aiming at her luckily.

The red machine dragon, alone with his tamer riding on his back, flew into the corridor and landed.

"Well you won't tell me anything, so I have to find it out myself." Said Samuru as his jumped off from Chaosdramon's back.

Witnessing the firepower of Chaosdramon, Reiko suddenly came up with a thought, something that she wanted to experiment.

"Make Chaosdramon shoots him!" she shouted at Samuru, hopefully the alarm noise wouldn't cover up her voice.

"Why should I listen to you!" Samuru shouted back.

Magnamon was still making progress to reach his prey, while Reiko and Samuru were left behind and were auguring just because Samuru thought he was too cool to take order. Right now, Reiko really wished that it were Akio and Metal Garurumon fighting with her side by side.

"Just listen to me, at least for the patients' sake." She tried to convince him, but he still refused. Finally she couldn't help unleashing her anger, "Why were you fighting him at the first place then!"

Straightly hit the point, Reiko's final words changed Samuru's mind. He ordered Chaosdramon to blow a hole out of Magnamon; Chaosdramon fired, though not powerful enough to actually made a hole out of the golden mega, a burnt mark could definitely be seen at his back's armor.

"It didn't grow back." Reiko mumbled in surprise, "Why didn't it grow back?"

"What the hell are you talk'in about?" asked Samuru, which surprised Reiko; clearly she didn't think he could hear her.

"Nothing big, you guys did a great job." Replied Reiko; she was busy constructing strategy, while checking HiAndromon's damage level. "Can you carry on?" she asked her partner softly.

HiAndromon nodded, then grabbed a trolley nearby to leverage himself up to his feet.

Reiko explained her plan follow up, "Inaba, you and Chaosdramon try to block Magnamon from walking further ahead; I and HiAndromon will take the short cut and reach his prey first, to ensure his safety."

"It's he after that boy that suddenly appeared during the tournament?" that was the only thing Samuru asked before agreeing to the plan.

"Yes." Reiko and HiAndromon were already on their run, "and I've already told you too much."

Following HiAndromon's lead, they entered a back door that was not occupied. It seemed that that path was especially designed for them by that time; they could go smoothly across one end to another of the floor without needing to squeeze their way through the crowd as well as all the damaged equipments that were left aside.

Soon they arrived at William's room, where he was still inside; the staffs must be so freaked out that they'd left a patient behind and not knowing it. The only relief that came to Reiko was that the targeted boy was still safe and sound.

As much as she hated Samuru, she really hoped that he could stop Magnamon before Magnamon could reach William. She didn't just stood and wait, though; immediately she was planning for the worst case; maybe she could find a staff to get William out of there, no, that wouldn't be possible, everyone was so busy helping other more important patients that they couldn't spare some effort for Reiko; or perhaps HiAndromon could help get William out of there, but then fighting Magnamon would be harder. There must be some other alternatives, yet she couldn't any of those under the stress of the situation.

And then without any preparation, Chaosdramon and Magnamon broke in. Magnamon could be seen severely damaged; his armor lost its glow, and some underwent serious shape-twisting as well. Chaosdramon was beaten on the ground; lots of black burnt mark could be seen covering his crimson body entirely, and many wires under the armor were revealed, especially those near the joints.

"Go help them out." Reiko told HiAndromon, who got on his feet and rushed into battle at once.

Magnamon should be very weak, not only judging from his damaged physical appearance, but also from the analyzed result of the data of Magnamon's current state, which was calculated by HiAndromon's program. Yet, HiAndromon still had a hard time dealing with Magnamon, as if the data had lied to him. In their close combat, Magnamon was obviously taking the advantage; he'd got the strength, strong enough that not only could he grab a rocketing punch from HiAndromon with one hand, but also twisted the robotic digimon's elbow, almost ripped HiAndromon's right forearm off. As HiAndromon trying to regain balance, Magnamon stroke, attacking HiAndromon fiercely; previously he acted like only care about his prey and ignored HiAndromon and Chaosdramon, now he was like pissed off, losing his sense and madly attacked those that were in his way. Samuru and Chaosdramon had surly done a great job in the previous fight.

Meanwhile Chaosdramon was trying hard to get up. Both four of his limbs now pinned tight on the floor, providing him enough support as he aimed his two shoulder cannons at Magnamon, who had already noticed Chaosdramon and thrown an entire HiAndromon at him, disrupted his shooting position and thus making him failed to fire.

Chaosdramon and HiAndromon lying on the floor like a mess, while the deformed Magnamon was approaching. Reiko couldn't be more nervous; not knowing what else to do, she looked at Magnamon, and then sifted her sight at HiAndromon and Chaosdramon, then looked to the other way again. At last, she didn't know how, but her sight turned at William's direction, and she saw the boy messing with his red device, murmuring "he's gone."

Perhaps the battle had taken all her focus that she didn't find it special by that time, but then she sensed the unusual, and she blinked as if to ensure her eyes were fully functional. Yes, there the William boy was, awake and active as if he hadn't been through the pass few days of his short coma.

And then William pointed his red device's screen towards Magnamon, inserted a chip, which was like the one he dropped the day at the arena, into the deceive. The screen glowed and flashed, as a gold star-shaped digimon along with swarm of digimons that looked like snake's scales, all silver in color, flooded out of the glowing screen and swarmed over Magnamon, barely enough to keep him occupied.

"Quick, do something!" William shouted, ordered Reiko and Samuru.

The two exchanged a look, then pulled out the strongest cards they had available. HiAndromon and Chaosdramon had already back to their fighting position.

"Atomic Ray."

"Chaos Crusher."

In a flash, Magnamon vanished, leaving nothing, not even the tiniest bit of data.

William's digimons went back into his device, and then the chip popped out of it.

Reiko sucked in a huge gasp of air, relief flooded over her heart, and then she collapsed. Before she hit the floor, though, William caught her in time.

"Thanks." Reiko whispered weakly, like she's about to get out of breathe.

"You're welcome." William responded, "but you still owe me."

Reiko looked at William, all puzzled, and then he continued.

"Where's Shoutmon?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in a quiet subway at the east district, where no signs of any human or digimon could be spotted, a breezing noise tore through the silence as a flash of purple light broke through the darkness. A portal opened, a girl stepped out of it.

"Huh, this place is quite cold, I should've wore more clothes." said she as the portal closed behind her. "It kinda rhymes."

Then she laughed, and walked towards the only light that came from the exit.


	4. Chapter 4

Going back home, head straight to bedroom, then lay freely on the bed; it seemed to be the best thing to do after a day's work. Yet, just as Akio was about to relax and enjoy the moment, the beeping noise from his digivice ruined everything.

"Hey Akio, you got phone," dotAgumon reminded.

Instantly, Akio thought that was some kind of commercial phone call that he had already placed his finger on the buttons, ready to deny the call, but then dotAgumon spoke again.

"It's from Reiko."

"What?" Akio immediately turned his sight at the screen and checked; it really was Reiko. Looking back at the pass few seconds, he could almost describe the experience thrilling; he'd nearly passed his distanced girlfriend's phone call. That could seriously ruin their relationship; besides, he wanted to see her, too.

Feeling a surge of energy went through his body, he no longer felt tired. Eagerly Akio opened up the communication channel, and the face of Reiko flashed to the screen.

"You o'kay, Rei?" that's the first thing came out of Akio's mouth before he could think of any thing to say. Reiko looked exceptionally dirty and tired. "You look like you've been to a coal mine."

"Not a mine," Reiko's voice came through the other side, sounded as powerless as one could guess; and she could be seen leaning on her desk almost like she were in a extremely boring lesson. "I've just came back home; lots of things happened today. I went to the hospital to visit that William boy, and then the hospital got attacked by Magnamon…"

"Magnamon?!" Akio couldn't help losing control after hearing the royal knight's name, "Are you really o'kay? Any injury?"

"I'm fine," replied Reiko after the rush of Akio's talking, "just got a few scratches, won't leave any scares, though."

She could almost hear Akio's sigh despite they're talking only through their digivices. "So," she continued, "Magnamon attacked, and I help defeated him. And by defeat I mean we kinda killed him."

"Wait, you did it?" asked Akio, "I mean… I'm not saying that you and HiAndromon suck, but…"

"I know what'd you mean," said Reiko, "I found it strange too when I saw Magnamon didn't regenerate. Besides, HiAndromon didn't do it alone, you've to thanks that William boy and Inaba too."

Akio looked utterly confused.

"Yep, the guy that you fought in the tournament," Reiko explained, "who also happens to be my annoying classmate and keeps asking about what actually happened at the end of the tournament everyday."

"Must be harsh for you."

"Yeah, that's even more annoying than those spamming mail." Reiko replied, "You look tired too, anything happened?"

"Unfortunately nothing." Said Akio in a disappointing tone

"Just a bunch of paper works." DotAgumon suddenly spoke

"Yeah," Akio continued, "you know, I've won all those tournaments, got qualified to participate in the championship, things can be slowed down for now. And once my teaches know that I don't have to go practicing for a while, they made me work on all those homework I owe them before."

"Those papers are enough to fill in an entire closet." Said dotAgumon with a smirk

"That's very poor of you." Said Reiko. Interestingly she'd just called him in time that both of them could understand each other's tiredness. She then got up, sat straight, and untied her ponytail. "Well then, here's a bonus for you."

"What?"

"Cause I'm really tired, I'm gonna take a shower after this chat, then get straight to bed. So I might as well start stripping now, to save some time."

"I'd like to see it in person."

"You'll have your chance," said Reiko as she was already on action, "anyway, just get straight to the point, did you take that Shoutmon chip?"

"Uh…well…I guess…yes." Answered Akio hesitatingly, he took that chip without letting any others except Metal Garurumon and dotAgumon know, and he knew one day he'd get into trouble because of that, he just didn't expect it'd come so fast. "I can explain…"

"No need now, explain to William when he's here. He's pissed, and it took me a hell lot of effort to convince him that I couldn't take him to you until weekend, I still need to go to school, you know."

"It means I'm seeing you soon?" That sounded like the best news in a while, though they were separated for only four days.

"Yeah," Reiko replied with a smile, one that could melt someone. "This Saturday, I'm gonna stay for a night too, get yourself prepared. So, that's about it, bye now, and, love you."

"Love you too." The screen on the digivice then went blank again. And once again Akio lied on his bed, staring at the ceiling and soaking in deep thoughts.

"I'm gonna wait forever."

"C'mon, it's just two days." Said Metal Garurumon as he entered the room, "Sorry I overheard your chat."

"It's not private, anyway."

* * *

Things were much more easier on the next, Akio had finally finished all his homework and still had time left. No more sacrificing lunch for work, no more unhealthy life style; at last he could feel a sense of relaxing after all the hardship in the previous days. And plus the fact that he could see Reiko soon; it really seemed that all the good things happened at once.

Down the stairs he walked to the cafeteria, where Jun and Katsumi had already saved him a seat. The two girls were already waving at him when he spent a while and finally spotted them; how long they'd been waving he had no idea. Making out a way through a crowd of students, he reached their table and took the seat immediately.

"Haven't seen you for quite a while," said Katsumi, and Akio thought she would've said something about keeping them waiting.

"Been busy lately," replied Akio.

"Yeah," said dotAgumon, "so busy he couldn't see Reiko for nearly two months until last weekend."

"What?!" both Katsumi and Jun were so surprised that they couldn't help slipping out the word a bit too loud, and they immediately covered they mouth as if that could lower their volume; hopefully no one took any notice to them.

"What are you doing here? Dotty?" Jun continued first, "I thought the school wouldn't let us bring digimon with us."

Both Akio and Katsumi, or perhaps dotAgumon too, stared at Jun as if she'd just said the most foolish thing, and then Katsumi spoke. "Actually, they've been doing this for almost a year."

"Yeah," Akio continued, "as long as no others know, it's okay. Too bad Metal couldn't go virtual like dotty; it'd be really cool if he's here."

The blond girl was still confused, "but then Katsumi, why are you surprised?"

"Well, I was surprised that Akio and Reiko could still maintain their relationship," said Katsumi, "seriously? You guys hadn't seen each other for two whole months? Not even online?"

"Being a tamer could really be busy around these times," Jun spoke before Akio could, "in the past few months, Kin could only spend about an hour with me everyday."

"And unlike him, I have to go to school," continued Akio, "so I don't even know why I'd have time to sleep."

And so on and on the chat went, until a while later they were interrupted by a girl that approached their table. That girl was odd; by no means was her face looks odd; she actually had a beautiful face, purple eyes, and brown hair in a pigtail style- really long tails indeed. The thing that caught the three's attention was her clothing. The school that they were studying at doesn't require students to wear uniform, so they saw all kinds of fashionable to some totally unmatched choice of clothing all the time. Yet, this particular girl's dressing style was really outstanding and memorable. Wearing tube top and suspender short jeans in a cold winter day was certainly impressive; and many sets of eyes had fallen on her as well.

Then she stopped and sat down next to Akio. Before anything could happen, Akio first asked, "Can I help you?" That should be the safest thing to say.

That girl then leaned on Akio, very closely, which reminded him his time with Reiko. "So, you are Akio? I've heard a lot of you." She said slowly, directly spoke to his ear, though the others could hear, too.

"Arr… yeah…" said the already flushed boy, with his shuttering voice.

"Wow, you've got fans now." Teased Katsumi

"Uh… I don't remember seeing you," said Akio to that girl, "What's your name?"

"Eligia," the brown-haired girl answered, "my name's Eligia."

"Um… Eligia," said Akio, "Can you get off me? Please?"

"He has a girlfriend." Said Katsumi

Eligia then sat straight slowly and stared at the apparently uncomfortable Akio who now didn't dare make eye contact with her. "Surely you're a cute little boy." And then she stood up and turned away. "See you."

The three of them stayed silence for a while, until Katsumi spoke again.

"She's one aggressive girl."

"I think she's more than that," said Jun, sounded concerned, "she searched all your pockets, though it's like that she didn't find anything."

"And I think she knew I'm here." DotAgumon added.

* * *

Later on, in the middle of a decently boring class, a breezing rang of alarm broke through the atmosphere and brought Akio back to reality from his dozing dreams. And as everyone could easily guess, it's another digimon attack. In fact, the word 'another' wasn't that accurate cause the district hadn't had mad digimons attack since the royal knights were gone; the most recent case was the one that caused Reiko much trouble.

"It doesn't feel right," said dotAgumon, "I can't sense my brothers."

"Maybe Plutomon figures out the knights are too precious after losing Magnamon." Whispered Akio as he blended in the evacuating crowd. "Where are they attacking, anyway?"

"Don't know." Uttered dotAgumon

"Can you hack into the security camera?" asked Akio, thinking that it'd be great to have Reiko here; she's kind of a computer geek, hacking shouldn't be hard for her.

DotAgumon seemed to have noticed Akio's thought, "Yeah, I wish she's here too. Save a lot of work for me." He then began to transmit his own data into the school's network.

"Great," Akio mumbled, "I calling Metal."

* * *

Later on, Akio successfully sniffed his way up to the rooftop, where Metal Garurumon landed. As soon as they met, dotAgumon returned to Akio's digivice ; and his discovery was shockingly weird: There was no digimon attacking, nor was there any damages done at the school.

"So it's a false alarm?" Frankly, Akio was kind of disappointed; sometimes he'd really want to be the hero; yet, on the other hand, he's glad that everything was still fine.

"So I came here for nothing?" Metal Garurumon groaned

Looking at Metal's annoyed face, Akio could easily understand his partner's frustration.

"Maybe we should go down stairs to inspect a bit?" suggested the red head.

Soon they arrived the floor where Akio's classroom's located. There's no one around; everyone, including Katsumi and Jun, followed the protocol and stayed at somewhere safe while waiting for the alarm to be confirmed. Akio, walking through the corridor alone with Metal Garurumon, surely felt special, while forgotten to consider the consequence. He was braking the rules, after all, and the cameras would definitely got him.

Still, he walked back into his room, and what he saw stunned him. It didn't make sense at all; Eligia was ther; more specifically, in front of his opened locker, which should be locked all the times. Suddenly, everything made sense.

Akio reached into his pocket and brought Shoutmon's chip out.

"You looking for this?"

"Who's she?"Metal whispered.

Eligia, perhaps too concentrated on searching, didn't notice Akio's arrival until he spoke. Once the boy's sound reached her ears, she turned, and looked at him as if she's expecting him to show up at anytime.

"Are you going to hand it over?" she asked innocently.

"So you're after it back at lunch time," said Akio, "you work for Plutomon?"

"Well done, detective," said Eligia as she approached Akio, she walked like a little girl, fast and slightly jumping up and down, kinda like she was dancing.

Akio quickly put the chip back in his pocket and stepped back, "the alarm's also your doing?"

"Yeah," the girl answered smoothly.

"How'd you fake it?"

"I didn't."

Two digimons then appeared out of nowhere, jetted towards Metal Garurumon by both sides, and successfully caught him off guard and got the upper hand in their short conflict. With Metal kneeled on his knees due to the sudden assault, both the attackers returned to Eligia's side. These two were relatively small digimons, standing at half a human's height- for the skull bodied digimon that stood in a human fashion; this one was mainly black in color, looking like a mini middle age knight with its cape and helmet, and the two lance that it's holding. The other one was more like a beast, same height as the previous one; spiky, shiny metallic black and gold armor covered its entire body.

"Meet Skull Knightmon," said Eligia, gestured at the mini knight, then at the beast, "and Axemon."

"So it's two on two," dotAgumon's data streamed out of Akio's digivice and became War Greymon.

"Nope,"the girl reacted at once as she took out something familiar, like the device from William, but silver in color. "You know what it is?

"It's name is Fusion Loader, and it fuse things, like this." Holding the Fusion Loader with both hands over her head, its screen flashed, and Eligia simply said, "Digifuse".

Then came the blinding white light that stormed the scene, seconds later, there's only one digimon by Eligia's side, it tall as Metal Garurumon and had a shape that resemble more of a human; black armor it wore; a huge axe-blade hung on its left shoulder and a double edged lance held by the right hand.

"Introducing Axe Knightmon," Said Eligia like a tv host, "though his weapon's not an axe."

"Ready for battle," Akio said quietly and stepped back, while Metal and War Greymon stepped forward; War Greymon was a step in front of Metal Garurumon and held a hand up to block him.

"Starting a fight here might got you out of the championship," he warned, "but legally, I'm not your mon, nothing's gonna happen to you if I got arrested."

"Ahh... thanks," that's all Akio could think of to say while he deeply appreciated War Greymon's concern.

Metal Garurumon stepped back with Akio, but didn't let his guard down. "I'll carry on when you failed."

"Not likely," said War Greymon as he dashed towards Axe Knightmon, swinging Medieval Dukrmon's axe while charging.

Axe Knightmon countered with a quick kneel that dodged War Greymon's attack, and immediately his lance hit War Greymon's ankle, knocked the mega down.

Of course War Greymon wouldn't just lose like that; he got up, and the with a lot more clashes of axe and lance; it was as if both digimons agreed that the classroom was too small a space for them to fight, both of them crashed into the window during the cross fire and ended up continuing the battle at the outer space.

Akio wanted to chase after them, but then there's Eligia, standing behind him and called for his attention. As he turned, the shocking yet expected scene came to his eyes as he saw her holding the Shoutmon chip with two fingers, waving it in a taunting manor; and has a smirk on her face. _Come and get me_ she said, not in words, but in a swift turning and running out of the room.

Back on the battlefield of War Greymon and Axe Knightmon; while both of them gained some level of damages, War Greymon had the upper hand; constantly changing his fighting style between using the axe and using the claws, he was able to catch Axe Knightmon off guard. Yet, the pattern of his attacks start to get unfolded as the battle lasted longer enough, and Axe Knightmon could easily counter every strikes from War Greymon as the fight went on. Soon their position were completely reversed.

Rolled over and over just to lie on the ground, look up and saw that the enemy was nowhere further got War Greymon really frustrated. A battle isn't that fun when you're just keep getting hit, and couldn't even get the chance to stand up. Closer and closer Axe Knightmon approached, step by step, raising his lance while walking towards the dragon warrior that was struggling to get up. Finally he stopped, and his lance holding hand raised a bit higher to charge the final bit of energy. Then, within a blink, it dropped; the pointy end of the lance dug right into War Greymon's stomach. Somehow War Greymon survived the stabb and Axe Knightmon pulled his weapon out of the target's body, getting ready for one final attack.

And that's when Akio and Metal Garurumon rushed in, shouted a big, loud "STOP!" that actually worked to get the black knight's attention.

Eligia was caught in Metal's fist, could not move a bit no matter how hard she tried. That's the result when your ego went outrages and think you could out run a digimon with jet engine. Though Akio had to amid that holding hostage was kinda a dirty means, that's the best shot they'd got by that time.

Everything then went on pretty well, all went according to Akio's will. While the treatment of the girl was still undecided, at least Skull Knightmon and Axemon were now harmless chips once again that were kept by the red head along with the Fusion Loader for security's sake. Now all that left was the annoying police interrogation, or in other words, investigation.


	5. Chapter 5

And so the day that everyone'd been looking forward to- or at least it was just Akio that got all hyped about- has come.

Eligia was there too, under surveillance, and because of other reasons. She might not be totally honest to anyone, but after hearing her story, both three of Akio's team decided that she needed to meet William.

But still, bringing another girl with you while waiting for your girlfriend is just kinda awkward, especially when she's not a friend. The red head could just pray for things to go smoothly.

Leaning against the wall on the platform, arms folded and looking for doors after doors on the train; surely he couldn't stand waiting anymore. Much to his, and the digimon's disappointment, Reiko didn't show up. The doors closed and the train moved fast forward. Another few minutes to wait.

"Hey," Eligia poked Akio on the arm, "Your girl dumped you?"

All she got was one blazing glare.

"Just say'in,"

Thanks to the brunette, the atmosphere became much more tense and, for the next few minutes, no one said a word, until the next train came.

As it settled down and people rushing out of all of the exits, Akio was, once again, trying to identify Reiko from the crowd. Surely the place was overran by people, all sorts of people, in front of you, behind you, to your left and right; there's just no way Akio could find his girl, besides, he needed to keep an eye on Eligia in case she stole her fusion loader and chips back. A few moments passed, and the highly densied cloud of people was no more. Looking to the other end of the platform, his red eyes met her blue ones.

Towards each other they ran, and then cuddled into a hug; not realizing Metal was kind of annoyed and was walking towards them slowly; same thing with William.

At the same time, Eligia hesitated, and then took a step back, slowly and not quite steadily.

"Been missing you," said Akio to Reiko after they let go of each other, "a lot."

Reiko smiled, but didn't say a word. She looked over her shoulder and saw William approaching. Then she whispered to Akio, "We should save that later."

William approached by Reiko's side, his face motionless, staring at Akio like an eagle staring at its prey. Immediately Akio thought if he'd done anything pissing him off, although William had enough reason to hate him.

"He's William, though you should've known it already." Reiko introduced, and then leaned towards Akio and whispered, "He might seem cold, but he's just the kind that rarely talks."

And then she got back to her initial position, gestured, ready to introduce Akio to William, but the cold boy simply jammed in her way. "No needs for greetings, just get straight to the business."

 _He 'might' seems cold?_ Thought the red head, but then he decided it's better to keep his thoughts as thoughts, and said nicely, "Yeah, let's do the serious first."

Once he got Shoutmon's chip out of his pocket- just the second when the edge of the chip was seen out of the pocket, William grabbed it, took it close to his eyes and carefully examined it.

"It sure does mean a lot." Reiko mumbled, almost couldn't be heard.

"Of course," said Metal Garurumon next to her, "it contain a digimon; or let's just say the chip is a live."

"How'd you know it?"

Metal wanted to talk about the things with Eligia from the day before, but looking around he found the girl missing; at a closer look, he found both sides had missing members.

"Where's HiAndromon, by the way." Asked him.

Reiko's eyelids lowered and the corner of her lips turned down, "He still needs more repair."

"Sorry about that."

By the time William had done checking the chip; he took out his fusion loader- a red one- making very much of a contras when compared to Eligia's- then he inserted the chip into the machine. Its screen glowed white and made an electrical noise. Seconds later, a white light beam was shot from the screen onto the ground, and immediately the beam turned into a digimon; it was small, red, had a tail, and a funny v-shaped horns on its forehead.

"Good to feel so alive again." said the digimon as it turned and looked up at William. "You've grown so much taller! Willy."

William looked down and said quietly, "No, I don't. It's just you, Shoutmon."

Shoutmon held up his hands in front of his face, with a few blinks, and then shouted, "Hey wait, why've I changed back to this form? What 'bout the digivolution?"

"Have enough of your self discovery?" said a voice from behind, a voice of a girl, the voice of Eligia.

"You!" turning and saw the brunette, William rushed towards her, hands grabbed firmly on her neck, and it seemed that he was about to throw her into the railway.

"What're you doing!" Akio and Metal ran towards William, grabbing him from both sides, stopped him.

"Calm down, man." Akio was having a really hard time holding onto William since he struggled so fiercely. Metal Garurumon, on the other hand, had no trouble keeping his grip.

The whole scene was kind of chaos, while Reiko was standing away from them, confused.

"Who's she?" she asked, knowing that probably none could hear her, not even hoping to get an answer.

But then William answered while still struggling to get free of Metal Garurumon.

"Enemy!" He shouted.

"Just calm down, will you?" This time it's Eligia to say it, playfully.

Of course she only made things worse as her words enraged William even more. This time, even Metal Garurumon had a hard time stopping him.

And Shoutmon was the one of those that stood by and watch. Reiko did so because she didn't know what to do, but Shoutmon didn't seem to be confused at all; the look on his face was like that he's enjoying a show, one that could end up nastily.

"Aren't you gonna do anything?" asked Reiko once she came back to her sense and notice the Shoutmon that was doing nothing.

The red little dragon shrugged, "it's not like I can do anything. My power's gone."

"It's not about fighting," said Reiko, "he trust you, right? Just talk him out of it!"

"Alright then," Shoutmon turned and walked toward the group of conflict. "Hey Willy! Quit it and just listen what they have to say."

Amazingly, it worked. William withdrew from the edge of the platform and walked to Shoutmon's side. Eligia lost her balance due to the sudden let go of William and nearly fell,

but was caught by Metal Garurumon. Then they and Akio rejoined the group.

"What's that all about?" Reiko demanded. She looked around the station; a few moments ago, the people were staring at them, at that little chaos they'd caused, and Reiko wasn't feeling very comfortable about it.

"Well¡K" Akio started slowly, his sight sifted from Reiko to Metal to Eligia and to William,

and stayed a while longer at him, before his eyes met Reiko's again. "All I know is that this girl, Eligia," he looked at the brunette, "she probably works for Plutomon, and tried to steal Shoutmon."

"After you did it first." William interrupted coldly.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Said Akio quietly.

"I'm still kinda confused." Reiko commented

"Me too." said dotAgumon

"She hunt us down, those with this," said William, raised his red fusion loader. Apparently he's doing his best to contain his anger, "it's dangerous to keep her around."

Eligia leaned close to Akio, and complained quietly, almost couldn't be heard by others, "Can't you tell them I'm no threat now?"

"I was planning to." Akio groaned. He then walked up and took out Eligia's fusion loader and chips. "See? She couldn't do a thing without them, right?"

"Not unless you destroyed them."

"What? Those are living digimons inside those chips!" Akio exclaimed

"Maybe I can keep them," Reiko suggested, and turned to William, "you can trust me, right?"

William didn't say a word about it.

"Then that's it." said Reiko as she took over Eligia's stuffs from Akio.

William then turned and walks away, without acknowledging anyone. Even Shoutmon was caught off guard and needed to run to keep up with him.

"That's it?" said Eligia, "thought he'll try to kill me again."

"Why did you take that chip away, anyway?" Reiko asked Akio. Her arms folded and the corner of her lips turned down; that's how she usually looks when she's about to be in a bad mood.

"Well, because..." Akio answered slowly, carefully thinking of the choice of words.

"Curious."

Reiko smiled, and Akio sensed no more tension. "That definitely sounds like you."

"Yeah," Akio mumbled, "hang on, what do you mean?"

"You know, you could always do some stupid things out of not much of a reason."

While witnessing how the conversation between Akio and Reiko went was surely interesting, Eligia felt like she's invisible to them.

Maybe that'd be her best chance to get back her belongings.

But there's one more obstacle: Metal Garurumon. She could never sneak pass him, so instead she chose to wait for another chance.

"Heeeey," she walked up to the couple and said as loud as she could, just to be sure that they could hear her.

And they did. Without waiting for them to turn to her, she continued, "I'm gonna go, feels kinda awkward standing in your way." Then she walked away.

"That remains me," said Metal, "I shouldn't be bothering you, too."

"What?" asked Akio, surprised, "you're not leaving, are you?"

"Come on, I've got my own things to do as well."

"But if we're in trouble," said Reiko

"I can do the job just as fine." said dotty, "and if you don't call me, I won't come out. Just pretend I'm not there."

"Gotta go," said Metal as he turned and walked away, "good luck with your date."

Reiko and Akio stood there, speechless for a moment. Everything changed so much after their relationship started.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Akio. As much as he anticipated seeing Reiko, he couldn't think of a thing to do now that he'd got his wish.

Reiko shrugged, seemed that she's just like Akio. "How about go visit the old gangs? I haven't seen them for ages." Finally she said. "Oh, and buy me some clothes, if you want me to sleep comfortably tonight. All I've brought is all I'm wearing now."

"Sure," said Akio as he took her hand, "let's go. But don't go for those too expansive."

* * *

"Where're we going?" Shoutmon asked. He and William had been riding the train for almost two hours, and now they were close to the south's station.

"Nowhere," William answered. His head down, arms folded, legs crossed. At plain sight, anyone would assume that he's asleep- except that he's not. "Sorry for bringing up the bad news- we're still homeless."

"I knew things aren't going any better without me." Shoutmon mumbled, looking down at the floor, "So back then, a couple of Kentaurosmon's arrows stick me, and then you turned me into a chip with that something loader."

William took out his red fusion loader, stared hard at it, "for once, this thing does us some good."

"Yeah," Shoutmon uttered, "but why did I get degenerated!?"

Right after that, the train arrived the station. William and Shoutmon had to get off, though they didn't know where they'd go next; the train wouldn't go any further.

"What 'bout the others?" asked Shoutmon.

"Preston's missing, dunno if Ballistamon and Dorulumon's still with him." Replied William, "Starmon, Pickmons are still with me, but I can't let those bunch out all the time."

They kept walking toward the exit; that's their only goal for the moment. If there's one thing they'd learn from escaping Plutomon's pursue, it'd be that they could survive most kind of harsh environment, so staying at the street for the whole night didn't seem to be any obstacle.

Further as they descended the stairs, William spotted a familiar shape: a boy with straight, pointy hair who was leaning his back against the wall, arms folded, and constantly peeking over his shoulder. William recognized him; he's the one working with Chaosdramon.

"Saving me doesn't give you the right to stock on me." Said William as he walked pass Samuru.

Samuru and Chaosdramon immediately followed them as they leave without second thoughts.

"Hey, I just want to help!" he shouted as he fastened his speed to keep up with William.

"No, you don't," Said William coldly, "you want to get yourself into danger, probably trying to prove something." And then he added one more line quietly, almost like he was talking to himself, "That's how teenagers act, anyway."

Samuru still wouldn't give up. This time he ran pass William and blocked his way. "What makes you think that way?"

"Cause you're too eager, boy." Said Shoutmon, hands on the back of his head.

Samuru's eyes narrowed, "First that girl rejected me, and then you're just as jerky as she's, and now your little red friend here's gonna lecture me, huh?"

"Don't- call- me- 'little'!" shouted Shoutmon."And I bet your big red chunk of metal there isn't any better than me."

Chaosdramon roared, so loud that all the people on the street can hear. His roaring sounded like lions, mixed with some fictional monster's sound.

"That wasn't very polite." Shoutmon commented as he leaned back, forcing a grine out.

"You understand him?" William asked, so quiet and calm that it's like Chaosdramon's roar hadn't happened.

"Yeah," Shoutmon replied, "anything but nice."

"We'd better get going." said William, started walking already.

Samuru jogged up front and blocked him again, "hey, you're just going to leave?"

"That can't be more obvious." Shoutmon muttered, hands on the back of his head, just as usual.

And then, the street that was silenced by Chaosdramon suddenly became loud again, started by someone yelled, "Help! That digimon mugged my bag!"

Though not interested, William and Shoutmon turned to take a look. It's only natural for them to do so. Once turned around, before they could see anything special, the mugger bumped into them. They fell, and the mugger kept running.

"Just like home." Shoutmon mumbled as he got up.

Samuru, on the other hand, immediately chased after the mugger. Chaosdramon followed him. Down the narrow streets he ran; it seemed that whoever they were after wasn't a fast runner, at least not the kind that could easily disappear at the turning of an alleyway.

As he ran, he didn't forget to take a good look at the mugger. It turned out quite shocking, that the mugger was a rocky, a Gabumon, yellow body with a piece of blue fur and a single horn. Its species, color, and the bright red eyes, all reminded Samuru of someone- Metal Garurumon x and his tamer, Akio. He hated them; they stole all the spot light during the arena attack, and though it had never been mentioned to the public, apparently they were there a year ago when some knight digimons attacked the city, let alone that he must be a part of this time's event too, while others just ignored Samuru as much as they could. The world is just so unfair.

"This should be an easy blow," he mumbled, "Chaosdramon!"

The crimson armored dragon roared at his opponent, so loud and fearsome that just the sheer sound of it had blown the Gabumon off his balance and fell a few feet behind.

"Now you'll pay for what you've done." said Samuru with a grin. He then held up a hand to signal Chaosdramon for the attack.

"Really? Pick up on some child?" said a rough voice from behind, Samuru turned and saw William and Shoutmon standing behind them. Shoutmon held a sword that seemed to be made of a starmon and other digimons.

"Do you have to go against me?"

"We'll do whatever we think that is right." said Shoutmon as he jumped up, flipped in midair and then kicked on Chaosdramon before he knew for another jump, and landed in front of Gabumon. Both his hands holding onto the sword tightly and pointed it straight towards the crimson dragon.

"you'd better hand over whatever you've taken." he hissed to Gabumon, "I probably couldn't hold him very long."

The Gabumon looked down, looked like he's about to cry or something, but none happened, and he didn't say a word.

"Man, I can't help you this way," Shoutmon muttered as he and Gabumon took another step back while Chaosdramon slowly approached, groaning his monster noise.

""Oh, come on!"

Then Gabumon cried out loud, surprised both parties.

"Did I said something wrong?" Shoutmon murmured.

"I'm sorry!" Gabumon cried as he handed the bag over.

"Chaosdramon," Samuru called, and Chaosdramon withdrew.

"That was close." Shoutmon let out a sigh of relief, his sword broken down into Starmon and tons of Pickmons. He then turned to the Gabumon, "Hey little one, if you need any help, just ask, but no stealing, (and probably don't count on us for money, we don't have much,) alright?"

* * *

At some distance away, Eligia,who followed William, just found a suitable helper for her in this world.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes:**

 **Really sorry for messing up with the formatting last time. It's been fixed.**

 **It's also good to know that there're people who actually cared about my work.(You know, not much diversity in the review.)**

 **One final and important thing: the following updates might take as long or even longer than this time, but I hope you'd all stay tuned. Thanks.**

* * *

"Are you out of your mind?" Reiko shouted as she rushed behind a wall after dodged one of Chaosdramon's gunfire.

A little while ago, Reiko and HiAndromon went to the remain of the part of the hospital that was blown down by Magnamon.

She had a strong feeling that William and Shoutmon might be staying in there since it was remain untouched after the attack. She had questions, and they might be her best help; Samuru said something weird to her that morning at school.

* * *

 _No, not again. Samuru's continuous 'harassment' had became Reiko's one and only source of stress at school. Seriously! Though she had been keeping secrets; it was only for the sake of keeping the people involved as few as possible. Messing with Plutomon was no funny matter, ever if her previous experience didn't teach her enough, Jun's story definitely did._

 _"Hey!" It's Samuru's voice from behind, she'd better pretend she couldn't hear him and continue her way to the cafeteria._

 _"Amano!" Now that Samuru shouted her last name, she could pretend that she thought he was calling for some one else._

 _"Yes, how can I help you?" said Reiko as she turned around._

 _"You have something that doesn't belong to you," said Samuru, "and I'm here to take it back."_

 _She knew he was talking about the fusion loader, but he shouldn't know it. The only other who knew it were those in the east's train station a few days ago, and Samuru wasn't there._

 _"What're you talking about?" Reiko answered, trying to act innocent._

 _"The fusion loader."_

 _"What's what?"_

 _"You know exactly what I'm talking about," said Samuru calmly, so calm that he sounded scary. "stop playing fool."_

 _"It's none of your business, anyway." said Reiko. She only dared say it when she saw her friends coming to get her. Otherwise she would have lied to the end._

* * *

Now she regretted that she hadn't lie to Samuru, maybe he would have fallen for her lies, and things wouldn't be this messed up.

Her back against the wall; the dust on it is thick, but it was no time to care about the dirt. Her heart pounding, her breath heavy. Looking around she couldn't find HiAndromon anywhere, and that made her more nervous. The heavy footsteps of Chaosdramon were just behind the wall; God knew if Chaosdramon would smash through the wall and possibly severely damage her, if not deadly enough to kill her.

Peeking out of the edge of the wall, she saw Eligia- hiding from the battle field, but couldn't stop talking- Reiko still found it hard to accept that of all sorts of people, Eligia would side up with Samuru and Chaosdramon, and it was shocking to know that she was so manipulative.

An other second passed, and the image of Chaosdramon got into the corner of Reiko 's eyes. She did her best to avoid Chaosdramon 's swinging arm that shattered part of the wall in bricks; she did got away from Chaosdramon, but the bricks scratched her right arm, and the cut on her sleeve is big and had pinkish leftover of blood on it.

And now Chaosdramon was right in front of her, face to face. He roared so loud and deafening, and as mechanic as he was, his saliver splashed all over Reiko's body.

"That is kinda disgusting." Eligia commented.

As far as Reiko knew, Chaosdramon couldn't shoot anything from his mouth, so although Chaosdramon's mouth was wide opened in front of her, she should be fine.

But then the inner wall of Chaosdramon's shoulder cannons started to glow.

"You've got to be kidding me." Reiko was already running at her full speed, towards the side that Chaosdramon's cannons weren't pointing at, and, while she failed to notice, Eligia's fusion loader fell out of her bag.

And then, as she kept running, she heard Chaosdramon 's roar, and then came the sound of metal colliding. That must be HiAndromon fighting Chaosdramon.

She turned, trying to see what was going on, but as night fell, she couldn't see things clearly. Besides, she'd gone too far to reach a safe distance from Chaosdramon that the two digimons were too far away for her to make some good shapes out of them.

 _Gotta get closer,_ thought Reiko. Slowly she approached the two digimons, while constantly looking for things to shield herself.

As she got close enough, the image of HiAndromon losing the fight came into her eyes. Chaosdramon got the upper hand with just physical attacks; clearly his strength was a lot stronger than HiAndromon, and the fact that HiAndromon was yet to reach full recovery had put him in a very bad position.

"HiAndromon, fall back." Reiko whispered, making sure that only HiAndromon would hear her. Then she slotted the "Atomic Ray" card in the digivice, and energy started to condense on HiAndromon's hands.

Within seconds HiAndromon had gathered enough energy to shoot at Chaosdramon. As he kept stepping back, he shot three continue shot of energy. The first one hit the calling above Chaosdramon; the fallen concrete slowed Chaosdramon a bit, as predicted; the second shot blown a hole on the floor, a step of distance from Chaosdramon's current position, and the third one hit Chaosdramon right on the chest right after the ceiling fell on him.

It didn't take too much time for Chaosdramon to regain his focus from the two hits. Once he locked on the escaping Reiko and HiAndromon, he proceeded to pursuit, only to step on the hole on the floor, and fell.

"Nice trick." Samuru murmured.

Chaosdramon wasn't only fallen on the ground, but also got his leg stuck; the hole wasn't big enough for him to fall onto the floor below. The sturdiness of the floor wasn't enough to hold him, though. Chaosdramon forced his leg out; the concrete around the trap was completely pulled out, and then Chaosdramon charged towards Reiko and HiAndromon. Judging by the shock that Chaosdramon's stomping made, none would argue that he's raging, and he's dangerous.

"There's no escape from me!" Chaosdramon shouted.

"Wow, he can actually talk." Reiko murmured. She really didn't know how she found the mood.

HiAndromon shot a few more energy shots at him; all resulted in vain.

And then Chaosdramon crashed into HiAndromon, blowing the black digimon a few ten feet away. He then targeted Reiko.

"No running away here~" said Eligia, suddenly appeared next to Reiko. Immediately she pinned Reiko down on the floor. Much to Reiko's surprise, Eligia's strength was irresistible.

"Come on, come on, where'd you keep them?" She whistled as she searched Reiko for Skull Kinghtmon and Axemon. "There you are." Eligia released Reiko once she had retrieved the two chips. Reiko felt like she'd been the seat of an elephant.

Chaosdramon pointed his cannon on his right arm at Reiko once Eligia leaved her, and Samuru seemed eager to slot in the card to activate the firing. But Eligia held up her left hand, and said, "I've plan for her."

* * *

Just as Akio thought it was just another day's end and prepared to take some rest, the ring tone form the digivice caught his attention, so he picked the digivice up. So tired he was that he hoped it was some commercial that he could simply cancel the call, but no, it was from Reiko. Knowing it gave him a bit more energy to answer, only he didn't see what he expected.

The image on the screen scared him. The light was dim and a bit yellowish on the other side of the screen; Reiko was hanging by her hands; she looked weak, but couldn't be determined if she had conscious, the image wasn't clear enough. Next to her stood Axe Knightmon. And then a voice spoke.

"Do you miss me?" it was Eligia.

"What do you want?" Said Akio, trying to be calm, but failed.

"Just make sure that William and his little red friend know, and we'll talk once all of you are here." Said Eligia, "Oh, one more thing. Your girl's been poisoned. I know it's a long for you to come here, so don't worry; she'll be fine for some time. And here's the coordinate."

Axe Knightmon then walked up front and stabbed his lance into Reiko's digivice, and Akio couldn't see anything on his.

Akio quickly grabbed his jacket and left his room.

"How do we find William?" Metal Garurumon asked.

"Dunno." Said Akio as he left the apartment.

"Dude, you need to stay calm," said dotAgumon, "being reckless couldn't save her."

Akio didn't answer, simply hurried his way. Metal Garurumon had no choice but to follow.

* * *

"Why did you break that thing?" Eligia demanded, "Now we've lost contact with Akio, who knows if he'll get lost?"

"Well, you told me to do 'something cool' at the end of the conversation." Axe Knightmon answered.

* * *

Akio and Metal saw William and Shoutmon once they got off the train.

"I heard what happened." Said William Akio reached him, "What's the plan?"

"We cooperate," Akio answered, "is there anything else we can do?"

Shoutmon sighed, "He's really losing his sense, huh?"

"Can you blame him?" Metal whispered.

"Hey listen!" Shoutmon walked towards Akio, "we've been running away from her with all our might, and now you're telling us to turn ourselves in?"

"So you're saying Rei's life is worthless compared to yours?" Akio scowled

"What?" Shouted Shoutmon; he even took out his weapon.

Metal and William stepped between Akio and Shoutmon, separated them.

"Stop it, you two!" Metal Garurumon scolded them, "arguing won't help anything, especially in situation like this."

"Akio, I know you worry about her, we all do." Said dotAgumon, "But you're not even thinking, let alone thinking with reason."

William seemed to have calmed Shoutmon down. He walked towards Akio and asked, "if we go straight in, are you confident you can defeat Axe Knightmon?"

"Sure." Metal answered.

"Then we waste no time," said William.

* * *

Following the coordinate Eligia gave them; they entered the sewer of the city. Everything smelled as bad as they could. Reiko was nowhere to be seen, and there are already multiple paths ahead of them.

"Head straight." Eligia's voice echoed.

Akio was the first one to rush ahead; Metal Garurumon followed him tightly.

"That idiot." Shoutmon commented, "can he do anything without his partner?"

A few minutes later, Akio reached Reiko. So hasty he was that he forgot to pay attention to the surroundings, though Metal Garurumon was keeping watch. Neither Eligia nor Axe Knightmon was there, only Reiko, hanging on the wall. Akio quickly got her down and sat her by the wall. Her eyes closed, but she smiled, which was the most straightforward way to show that she's alive.

Seconds later, William and Shoutmon arrived.

"Well, I'm surprised." Said Shoutmon; he was expecting some dangerous digimons waiting for him.

William looked around; they were at the meet-point of three paths that formed a 'T' shape. When his sight fell on Akio and Reiko, he asked, "How's she doing?"

"Don't know," Akio answered, "at least she's still alive."

"That sounds bad enough." Said Shoutmon.

"That's actually the best part." Eligia's voice echoed in every direction, but her voice was clearly come from the left to the party. She showed herself, along with Axe Knightmon and a small digimon; one that looked like a plant-type.

"Hi, we meet again." she added.

"What do you want?" Akio shouted, so loud that his voice echoed for a few seconds until it eventually faded.

"Well, about that," Eligia spoke, "that part, we can wait. Now, why don't I show you something more interesting?

"Sure you are all curious that I've brought this little feller, Alarumon, along," she paused, gesturing the plant-type digimon that came along with her, "even if you aren't, you're going to be. You see, this little girl here is kinda good with poison."

"So you found a random digimon and had her poisoned Reiko," said Shoutmon, "thanks for telling us which one to beat." He then took out his rod weapon and charged towards Alarumon.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Axe Knightmon blocked and swung Shoutmon away with one hand.

"It seems that no one's patient enough for a talk," Eligia continued, "Seriously, you would want to pay attention if you let me continue."

"Then just get to the point!" Metal Garurumon scowled.

"Okay, fine." Eligia sighed, "Looks like I'm not good at giving speech."

Akio really didn't feel like wasting anymore time listening to Eligia talking non-sense; Reiko desperately needed medication, and Eligia was like hindering that from happening by saying a bunch of irrelevant things rather than getting straight to the point. So Akio lifted Reiko up; one hand supporting her back and another supporting the back of her knees, and then he turned to where he came from.

"Metal," he called, "we're outta here."

From the path opposite to the one that Eligia showed up came a teenage boy and a red armored dragon digimon.

"You're not getting anywhere." Said that boy.

Akio turned towards the voice, and found out that it belonged to the tamer he and Metal fought in the tournament the other day.

Surprised, Akio asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just following her plan." Said Samuru.

Then Akio turned and looked at Eligia.

"Skip to the point, I know." Said Eligia, "Alarumon."

Alarumon just stood there, like she didn't do anything at all. But then Reiko twitched; her veins were like expanded and could be seen clearly on her skin and they turned purple, and Reiko groaned in her illness.

"You see," Eligia spoke again, "my little friend here has the power to let your girlfriend live, suffer, or die. And she listen to me, which means I have control over your girlfriend's life."

"What's the point of this madness?" said William as he took out his fusion loader, "you want this, right? Just take it." He then threw it to Eligia with hesitation.

Eligia caught the red fusion loader, clicked some sequences of buttons and released the starmon and pickmons, and then she clicked another patteren of buttons.

"Bet you don't know how this thing works." She mumbled as she took out the now blank digi-memories from the fusion loader.

"Are we done now?" asked William.

"Oh, of course not." Said Eligia casually.

William's party got alerted, as Eligia spoke casually like she paid no attention to the others.

"Why would I target that girl if I'm only after this thing?" said she as she waved the red fusion loader as her trophy. "You're listening to me now, Akio."

"And what do you want from me?" Akio shouted furiously.

"I don't know. How 'bout some exciting actions first?" said Eligia as she stepped back and Axe Knightmon walked up front. "Axe Knightmon, you're up."

On the other hand, Chaosdramon was approaching.

"Chaosdramon, get ready." Said Samuru.

DotAgumon left Akio's digivice and transformed into WarGerymon and readied for the battle; so did Metal Garurumon. WarGerymon was facing Axe Knightmon and Metal Garurumon was facing Chaosdramon.

"I've beat you once, I can do it again easily." Axe Knightmon said to WarGerymon as he got his lance into position.

"Then I suggest you make a different this time." WarGerymon replied, readied his axe.

"Please tell me it has nothing to do with me defeating you in the tournament." Said Metal Garurumon. Chaosdramon didn't answer, though. He simply roared and charged at Metal Garurumon.

"I guess it does." Metal Garurumon mumbled as he fired his gatling gun.

* * *

WarGerymon kept swing his axe at air; it was not like that he didn't know how to use the axe; Axe Knightmon was too fast for a heavy weapon to hit. Every time when the edge was about to cut Axe Knightmon, he could manage to slip pass the axe, and, hitting WarGerymon while he was regaining balance.

As much as WarGerymon wanted to honor his friend, he really couldn't stand using the axe anymore, not when the heavy weapon could give him only disadvantage. So he threw the axe straight at Axe Knightmon, as he joked on Axe Knightmon, "Your name's 'Axe' Knightmon, right? This thing should suit you perfectly."

Due to the large size of the axe, Axe Knightmon couldn't dodge it, so instead he blocked the projectile by his lance, and the great momentum of the axe made him stumbled backwards. In the meantime, WarGerymon had already equipped his claws. When Axe Knightmon lowered his defense arms down to get a clear sight, all he could see was the incoming punch right in front of him. And it hit him, of course.

So the chance for WarGerymon came. After he hit Axe Knightmon in the face, he stroked Axe Knightmon's abdomen, and before Axe Knightmon manage to prepare for another attack, WarGerymon gave Axe Knightmon a painful kick to knock him off to the water.

* * *

Akio and Metal Garurumon kept backing their way; they were far away from Reiko and William, as well as from WarGerymon.

Whenever Chaosdramon entered a battle, there's always going to be things shattering everywhere around, and this was no exception this time. The concrete and bricks shattered around Akio and Metal Garurumon whenever Chaosdramon missed his target.

"Pleas control your tamper." Said Akio, "We're in underground, you could bury us alive!"

"That won't happen if you'll just stay still and get hit." Samuru replied.

"That's not the way things go in a battle." mumbled Metal Garurumon. Right after that, the ceiling was blasted and the bricks fell on him.

 _There has to be a way to stop them._ Thought Akio, while looking around to see if the environment could help them. But still, he could think of nothing.

"Any plan?" Metal Garurumon asked.

"Not yet."

"Then I suggest we run away from their sight first," said Metal Garurumon, "before they get this place crumbled and bury us alive."

"Sounds like a plan." Said Akio. Usually Metal Garurumon wasn't the one to do the planning.

So Metal Garurumon turned his back on Chaosdramon, hoping that he would get hit while letting Akio hop on his back. Once he felt Akio's weight, he started the engine of his thrusters.

"Hold tight." He reminded before taking off.

"Why wouldn't I do so?" Akio replied.

And then they quickly accelerated and disappeared from Chaosdramon's crosshair. Chaosdramon, having lost his targets, was furious and fired a couple more shots from his cannons in vain.

* * *

On the other hand, WarGerymon had lost his advantage and was having an equal fight with Axe Knightmon. The black knight's constantly swinging his cape around had caused a huge inconvenient for WarGerymon, and that action reminded him of Dukemon, who'd also used his cape for defense purpose frequently, and that had been one strategy that always troubled WarGerymon.

"Can't you just stop playing with your cape?" said WarGerymon as he stabbed the cape-covering Axe Knightmon, but found out that there's quite a distance between the cape he'd stabbed and the actual body of Axe Knightmon. A moment later, his arm was wrapped by that cape and couldn't move freely. "It's annoying."

"Glad you'd like it." said Axe Knightmon. While limiting WarGerymon's movement, his attacks hit WarGerymon more frequently. Though WarGerymon's armor was proven to be sturdy against his lance, some major damage could be seen on WarGerymon as Axe Knightmon progressed his waves of attacks.

WarGerymon should have torn Axe Knightmon's cape apart already, but the reality spoke the opposite. WarGerymon's right arm was still trapped despite his struggle, and that gave him a huge disadvantage in the fight. It was already a miracle that he could hold on with his movement limited and could only fight Axe Knightmon with his left hand.

Another strike form Axe Knightmon's lance came; it left a huge hole on WarGerymon's arm's armor. Luckily, though, that it wasn't left on his torso or other major body parts.

"Still wouldn't give up, huh?" said Axe Knightmon as he stabbed WarGerymon with his lance again; only this time, WarGerymon's claws caught the lance before it could hit his face.

"You know people only ask that kind of question when they're losing," WarGerymon replied. Axe Knightmon wouldn't let go of his lance, and WarGerymon had more than enough strength to hold it in place; Axe Knightmon's another hand was controlling his cape, which wrapped WarGerymon's right arm tightly. None of them could attack. "You could do _what_ easily, again?" WarGerymon taunted.

The line seemed to have triggered something; Axe Knightmon let lose of WarGerymon's right arm while pushing him all in a sudden. WarGerymon fell on his back, but was glad that he could move freely again. It would be Axe Knightmon's greatest mistake.

"How dare you!" It was the first time Axe Knightmon showed his anger. And form experience, WarGerymon knew that the angriest one in a battle fell the fastest.

"About time." WarGerymon muttered to himself. Axe Knightmon charged at him, holding his lance up high to gain enough energy for the next hit. WarGerymon didn't stand up, though. He just extended his leg to tip Axe Knightmon over.

"Time to strike back."

* * *

Akio and Metal Garurumon had flown far enough and turned more corners than they'd ever intended. The original plan was to find a suitable position for long-range attack, but now they were like escaping.

"Stop!" Akio demanded. "What are we even doing?"

"Executing a plan." Metal Garurumon replied, weapons in arm. He peeked back at the corner they'd just turned; nothing was there, but Chaosdramon and Samuru should be there soon.

What they had been doing was getting Chaosdramon to chase after them, fire at them, and they always get ahead of Chaosdramon to make him waste his ammos. They'd been doing this for a long time.

"What if it doesn't work?" said Akio, "Reiko's life's at stake, and we're just wasting time. She might be gone in any second!"

"Calm down." said Metal Garurumon, still keeping watch. "I feel the same way you do. Well, maybe not exactly the same. But Reiko's my friend too; the point is, you're not the only that is concerned, but only patience can help right now.

"Alright, here they come." Chaosdramon's shape appeared at the end of the passage.

Metal Garurumon walked out, just as far as he could be spotted by Chaosdramon and could also retreat in time. Though he didn't know Chaosdramon very much, the bad temper of Chaosdramon could be easily spotted, and could be exploited.

As expected, Chaosdramon fired at him with all his might, even though nearly none of the projectiles hit their target, or that they didn't even have a target. Metal Garurumon got away, as he did before and the countless times before.

"Come and face me!" Samuru shouted, so loud that his voice was still perfectly clear when it traveled a long way and reached Akio and Metal Garurumon.

"I will, when the time's right." Metal Garurumon replied. And then he grabbed Akio and was readied to go, but Akio stopped him.

"This is pointless," he shouted to Samuru, "we're all being played by a psycho girl."

"And?" aside from Samuru's voice, the only sound that could be heard was Chaosdramon's footsteps.

"Quick." Metal Garurumon whispered, "we've to go."

"Just a second." Akio replied. He talked to Samuru again, "Why are you doing this? Being manipulated like this?"

"Because I want to," said Samuru, and Chaosdramon was coming closer, "I don't care I'm being used or not."

"Damn it." mumbled Akio.

"Now what?" asked Metal Garurumon.

"We stop running and start fight back?" Akio suggested.

"Maybe it's about time." Metal Garurumon murmured. Akio used all the cards he had in hand to boost Metal Garurumon's firepower, and Metal Garurumon went out to meet Chaosdramon. He was welcomed by countless of projectiles, so obviously Chaosdramon hadn't ran out of ammos, but he was running low on energy, which made the damage Metal Garurumon taken minimized.

"Now!" Metal Garurumon indicated, and Akio used the card 'Garuru Burst', which unleashed all the attacks Metal Garurumon could perform at once. All of Metal Garurumon's guns are firing mercilessly. The whole scene was a mess. It concerned Akio, though, that Samuru could get hurt in the crossfire.

Once the attack was over, Akio and Metal Garurumon rushed towards Chaosdramon. He was on the ground, motionless; his red armor deformed to a pretty bad shape. Akio and Metal Garurumon hoped they didn't go too far that they killed their enemy by mistake.

In addition, Akio looked around to search for Samuru, but he was nowhere to be seen. Washed away by the running water, maybe. They'd messed the waterway up pretty badly, after all.

"Was he…" Akio asked.

"I don't know." Metal Garurumon answered. "Maybe you can try using some recovery cards on him."

And so Akio did so. Soon Chaosdramon moved slightly, and Akio and Metal Garurumon were relief.

"Guess it's over for now." Metal Garurumon sighed.

"Let's get back to Rei." Akio was already on his way back.


	7. Chapter 7

Just when Akio and Metal Garurumon took a few steps ahead, a low, rough noise of friction like metal scraping against rock came from behind. Needless to see for themselves; it was Chaosdramon rising up.

Still, they turned about to see if Chaosdramon posed a threat. It wasn't Chaosdramon, but Samuru, who surprised Akio when he turned and discovered that Samuru was right in front of him. The black-haired boy grabbed Akio by the neck with both of his hands and pushed him to the nearest wall. Samuru's brut force was unstoppable; it pained Akio's back skull as he got slammed onto the wall. His throat hurt even harder, and despite the difficulty in breathing, he felt like the air was being forced out of him.

Glancing aside, he saw the fight between Metal and Chaosdramon had resumed, and Metal had lost his advantage.

"You're crazy." It surprised Akio that he could still spill out a few words.

Metal Garurumon tried to reach out for Akio, but his way was blocked by Chaosdramon, and he dared not to aim any of his guns at Samuru in case he shot Akio by mistake. His partner's situation gave him a huge distraction that slowly drove him to losing the fight.

Samuru's choke on Akio's neck was still iron tight, and Akio had already lost the strength to resist; he couldn't speak a word, either. It was still a mystery to him about what Eligia had said or done to Samuru.

Some strange noise came to his ears, and he thought that was just an illusion caused by his lost of oxygen. The noise was like firecracker starting to blast, and it got louder by each second. Even Samuru turned around to see what was going on. So AKio's ears mustn't be playing tricks to him.

Then came a blinding light, and Akio felt a force pushing him, away from Samuru and towards a random direction. He couldn't' stop until he hit a wall and fell on the ground. By then, he was already too numb to feel any pain and too exhausted to move.

Sizing the chance, Metal Garurumon knocked Chaosdramon aside and rushed to protect Akio, his Gatling gun pointing at Chaosdramon and his shoulder-cannon pointing at Samuru.

The light faded, and the one that caused the blast was revealed as HiAndromon. His black armor was what Akio could see at first sight, and it gave him a huge relief.

"Starting to wonder where you've been." said Metal Garurumon.  
"It's good to see you." Said Akio as he stood up with some help from Metal Garurumon.

"You too." HiAndromon replied.

Though Samuru still didn't want to give up, he knew all too well that a wounded Chaosdramon couldn't take on two others, so he had to let Akio go.

* * *

WarGerymon was there when Akio returned. Judging from the smirk on his face, he'd probably already defeated Axe Kinightmon.

Reiko seemed to be better. She was standing on her feet with William steadying her, and didn't look as pale as before.

Akio hurried to Reiko's side' her arms wrapped around his. A big smile appeared on her face once she saw HiAndromon was safe. The others gathered around as well, weapons readied, incase Eligia had anything up to her sleeve.

"So you guys did win." Said Eligia. "Well, that's excepted."

All of the party glared at her. Akio stepped forward and asked. "What'd you want, to kill us in your own weird way?"

"Kill you? No, I never wanted to kill you." Laughed Eligia. She looked at Samuru, then back at Akio. "He went a bit too far, didn't he?"

Samuru rolled his eyes. Eligia continued.

"Now," she paused, studying Akio's expression. He looked angry, tired, and the look of hoping to get Reiko healed could easily be observed. "Is not the time to cure your girlfriend."

The atmosphere tensed in a second, though no one on Akio's side dared do a thing, considering Reiko's well-being.

"What do you want?" Akio demanded, looking angry.

"I want you, and your digimons." Eligia answered. "Why else would you think I gave you guys a fight while not wanting to kill you?"

Akio went silent for a moment; he couldn't understand what Eligia was after.

Eligia snapped her fingers, and, as if it worked, a portal appeared behind her. "Come with me." Said Eligia, as if anyone else too foolish to realize it.

Akio stepped back and looked at Reiko. Her facial expression was just as tense as Akio's.

She looked into his eyes; the one thing bothering Akio's mind was crystal clear. Her expression softened and she said to Akio softly. "Whatever you choose, I'll be on your side."

Akio smiled, nodding. He then shifted his sight to Metal Garurumon and WarGreymon.

"We're at your command, as always." Said WarGreymon.

Akio turned back to Reiko, hands on her shoulder. He looked into her shining blue eyes and said determinedly. "I'll be back soon; I promise." He then leaned closer, wanting to kiss her. To his surprise, Reiko pulled herself away. "No kissing until you return."

Akio smiled. Reiko was definitely recovering.

"Well then." He turned and walked toward the portal. Metal Garurumon and WarGreymon followed him as they said their goodbyes to the others. Eligia and Axe Knightmon followed them, and the portal was closer after Samuru and Chaosdramon had gone through it.

* * *

One second Akio was standing on a concrete floor, and the next moment he was stepping on grasses.

He looked around, finding trees everywhere –trees so tall that they seemed to have covered the already dark sky. He and his two digimons looked around in wonder, trying to find a clue as to where they'd been sent.

"Hello?" Eligia said from behind. "Don't block the way. I don't wanna get stuck in the middle of the portal."

Akio turned about. The portal was still there, right in front of him, its purple light glowing brighter than ever in the middle of the night, almost blinding. Akio took a few steps back, and Eligia popped out of the portal immediately.

"Dude, did no you ever teach you not to block the doorway?"

Akio didn't answer; he returned to his friends' side.

"What? A silent treatment or something?"

"Don't talk like we're friends!" Akio yelled.

"That's not very nice." Said Eligia. She glanced at Samuru, and then set her sight back on Akio. "You two might be a like."

Akio let out a heavy sigh. "Just tell me what to do, so I can finish it quick and save Rei."

"First thing: be nice!"

"Damn it!" Akio murmured.

Samuru walked up front and spoke. "Where're we?"

"Let's save the introduction later." Replied Eligia, already on the walk. "Yeah, the portal didn't send us to the direct destination. Surprised?"

None answered. They simply followed her lead.

"You boys are no fun."

An hour had passed. They'd been climbing up a slope nonstop. Though it was not too steep, it was not a pleasant trip for Akio. Eligia was always ahead. Back in the sewage, she'd been the only one who hadn't been fighting, and it seemed that she had no knowledge of that. Every once in a while, she'd stop from far above and yell in a childish manner to the others to go faster, and then run off on her own.

Another half hour had passed, and they'd reached a peak. Eligia was taking a nap; AxeKnightmon guarding her. Chaosdramon was complaining in his monstrous roar when he arrived; Samuru was doing more or less the same, just not so loud and spoken in human language. Akio and his company were the last to arrive. He felt like collapsing. Fortunately Metal Garurumon had enough strength to carry him. WarGreymon was already back into Akio's digivice, to save his strength in case there's a need for battle and everyone else had fallen.

"Took you long enough." Said Eligia, who snapped out of her nap once Akio arrived.

"You know, thing'd have been easier if you'd sent us to wherever you wanted with that portal." Akio countered, his breath heavy, his body coated with sweat. The temperature was rising around him.

"Where are we?" he asked. "And where are we headed to?"

"We're near a volcano." Eligia responded. "And we will go inside. But first, we'll go down this hill and find an inn to spend the night."

"Then why do we have to walk all this way?" demanded Samuru.

"To get you guys used to these amount of exhaustion." Eligia replied, earning herself some bad-looking faces. "Alright then, to be honest, we didn't transport ourselves straight down town because we didn't want to raise suspicions. People there aren't used to seeing purple light flashing out of nowhere."

They descended the hill and entered the nearest town. Silence filled the air. Darkness was around them; only a few short buildings had their lights on. The party headed toward one of these buildings.

The interior of the building was dimly lighted; the walls looked fragile and the ceiling was like it's going to fall off at any second. Eligia went back to the party once she had finished her business at the counter.

"Don't stare," said she, "it's the best we're gonna get." And then she and Axe Knightmon went upstairs to take their rest. Samuru and Chaosdramon followed. Akio stood like a statue for a long while, but eventually he went up to his room too.

In the ugly room he couched himself at a corner, and did nothing at all.

"You're not going to shower?" Metal Garurumon asked as he approached Akio; he didn't sit down next to him, though. "You smell awful."

Akio simply shook his head.

"Then as least go to bed and get some rest."

Akio still didn't respond; he didn't even moved this time.

"What's wrong with you?" Metal walked away from Akio this time. "You think because Reiko is probably suffering right now that you shouldn't make yourself comfortable too?"

"Kinda." Akio mumbled.

"Just wash away your god damn smell and sleep!" This time it was dotAgumon to speak. "I figured that's what Reiko would say."

"Maybe." Akio replied, still wasn't moving.

"You think she would want you to be like this?" Metal walked towards Akio, grabbed him by the arms, and forced him to the doorway of the bathroom, then thrown him inside.

"Hey!" Akio shouted, and Metal ignored him and went away. Akio stood there, frozen for a second.

"Hi," Eligia's voice came from behind. Akio turned to see her: freshly dressed, hair down; she looked a bit more normal in this straight hairstyle. "I've just finished."

"Yeah, right." Akio murmured, and then hurried Eligia out.

The bathroom was dirty; it didn't bother him much, though. After his quick shower, he went back to his room and headed straight for the bed. Metal was already sleeping, and Akio quickly fell asleep too.


	8. Chapter 8

They got up early on the next day and went all the ways back up to the mountain. Various vicious digimons and some bandits got in their way; the obstacles were easily taken care of, however, and Eilgia didn't even need to call out Skull Knightmon and Axemon for protection.

After about an hour of walking, they reached a cave that looked nothing special- a perfect disguise mechanism. The cave was a straight tunnel, and nothing dangerous popped up in there. The tunnel was lighted with dim orange lights, like it was filled with torches, yet no clear light source could be found.

The temperature rose as the party proceeded. Eligia told them they were to go inside a volcano the night before, though the thought never occurred to Akio back then, he now wondered if it was an active one, that they could be swallowed by lava at any second.

"Is it…" Akio began to ask, but was interrupted by Eligia.

"Don't worry, you won't be cooked up in here." Said Eligia as she proceeded further.

And so on they went. The party was surprisingly quiet, even Eligia had stopped talking. Though Akio didn't want to talk to anyone other than Metal Garurumon and dotAgumon, he couldn't help wonder what would keep Eligia quiet, and the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he got.

"What's going on?" finally someone asked; it was dotAgumon, but not Akio, though. "Why's everyone so quiet?"

And all he'd got was a "hush!" from Eligia.

"Can't you hear it?" said the brown haired girl, sticking her ear on the wall.

Akio tried to do the same, but couldn't find anything special. From the look of Samuru, Akio could see he'd failed, too.

"Any way." Said Eligia as she stepped away from the wall. "It's not something you need to concern." She faced the wall, held up her fusion loader and summoned Axe Knightmon. The knight digimon titled his head and glanced Eligia, and the girl nodded.

"Do it." she said. So calm and quiet that she seemed creepy.

Axe Knightmon struck his lance on the wall. There were waves of glowing red bits of data floating out of where he hit immediately. A digimon that seemed to be made entirely of rocks fell from the wall; it was clear that the data was bleeding from him.

The digimon tried to run towards the exit, but with a wound he was not fast enough. A second later his body was seen piecing through by Axe Knightmon's lance, and the entire stone digimon was broken down into tens of thousands of data bits.

Akio watched with his jaw dropped.

"That's a sneaky one." Eligia commented. "That Golemon; it was clever for him to disguise himself as part of the wall, but not too clever to scratch his butt." She paused, and then added. "Yeah, that's what I heard."

"But he's just a wild digimon," said Akio, "he wasn't even trying to attack us."

"Oh, of course he was," said Eligia. She leaned close to Akio, glaring at him. Her purple eyes suddenly seemed angerous. "If I spared him, he would bring an army- or at least a few more dozens of digimons far stronger than him- to here, and that would be a real mess."

"So he's so sort of a scout." Samuru remarked.

"Thanks for stating the obvious," said Eligia. "Should we get going?"

"No," Metal Garurumon said. "I want to know what's going on in this place."

"People fightin' round to gain control of this freakish island," Eligia answered. "I'll explain once we reached our destination; now should we get GOING?"

No more conversation occurred after that. The party went forward and so on; soon the narrow tunnel wall became wider. Eventually they entered a chamber of fire. They were standing on a bridge; far below it was filled with lava and rocks. Though far, the lava s heat should had boiled the party into steam already. Yet, for some strange reason, the only thing that they were feeling was like sitting by a fireplace in summer, and no more. Eligia said that the lava wasn t as hot as they looked like, but who would know if she was telling the truth.

A bit further they went, and an object of great significance immediately caught Akio s eyes. The object looked like a huge statue of many humanoid digimons, whose postures were as if they were still in the middle of a dreadful battle, being forced to their last line of defense. Away from the bridge and on top of the lava the statue rested; splashes of molten rocks struck its base, and yet not even a scratch was left on it. Its rough gray surface was lit with a bright crimson orange color, as if it was on fire.

Everyone, saved for Eligia and Axe Knightmon, were standing at the edge of the bridge, looking at the statue in astonishment. So stunned were they that every questions in their mind couldn't make it pass their mouthpiece. Even dotAgumon, the former Royal Knight who had seen a lot of wonders in the digital world, was not very pleasantly surprised by the view.

Out of no particular reason, Akio got a chill in spite of being in a boiling hot environment. It seemed to him that there was a horrific story behind the statue.

And that was where Eligia came in.

She walked towards the party's members, who were still getting as far on the edge of the bridge as they could to get a clearer view of the statue, like some two-year-olds in a zoo in Eligia's view. As usual, the girl's talking shattered the silence.

"I'm the tour guide here, leave the explanation part to me." Said she with a smirk, as if she had been longing for that moment.

"What you're seeing are- or were- the mighty gods that had once ruled this island," she started, "I mean it literally; it's not some stupid replicas of them.

"They called themselves the Olympos XII- well, originally XIII- until the twelve of them decided to kick their least favorite one out of the land. And yes, the one who got his butt kicked is Plutomon. He's actually the nicest guy amount them."

"Then the rest should be terrible." Akio couldn't help interrupting.

"I don't know for sure," replied Eligia, "I've never seen them with my own eyes. Plutomon tells me tales; but I do know how they ruled, and that was way beyond terrible.

"This island was already a waste land ever since I was born; I heard that was the results of their actions. After I was old enough to know politics, if such things exist in this land, all I knew was that they were gathering all that's left in this land for themselves, and left every life behind. The neighborhood we were in last night was already the better one, since it's nearer to the base (here). I was from the slum of the outer ring of the island, by the way."

"And now?" Samuru requested.

"Now, there's a bunch of rebels out there who want to bring those dutch bags back. But they're not our concern."

Samuru looked down; the corner of his mouth turned down. Surely he wanted to smash some rebels with Chaosdramon.

"Why do I have the feeling that that statute has something to do with us being here?" Akio mumbled, while still staring at the statue.

"Me too." Metal Garurumon nodded.

Meanwhile, Eligia continued, " The reason for you guys to be here is that you guys are the back up for the great plan."

"Back up!" Samuru shouted, and Chaosdramon roared and swung his claws dangerously as well. "I didn't follow you here just to sit down and wait for anything to go wrong!"

Akio tried to talk him to calm down, while Metal Garurumon readied for the worst situation possible. Eligia, on the other hand, saw Samuru's riot as nothing and just laughed at the scene.

Akio hadn't calmed Samuru down yet, yet he couldn't help asking Eligia "what plan?".

Eligia responded with a smirk, like she always does, and answered, "I guest I'd best leave this part for the master mind himself."

As the sound of the last of her words faded, a portal opened on the other side of the bridge, and lighted the chamber up even more, as if it wasn't blindingly bright enough.

Out came a tall, lean black figure from the portal. Out came Plutomon.

* * *

Reiko opened her eyes, and saw the familiar ceiling hanging in front of her.

She couldn't hear a thing except for her own rapid beat of breathing; the drumming of her racing heart dominated her sense of feeling that she couldn't find out that she was lying on her own bed for a moment.

She closed her eyes again, and tried to recall the event of the night before. Everything happened so vigorously that it seemed like a dream, and yet she could tell much details from her memory. She remembered not kissing Akio good bye, and she remembered how astonished her father was when William carried her home. Most importantly, she knew for certain that her blood was not clean, and it had caused Akio and Metal and dotty into some evil events that they wouldn't have to face.

Still lying on the soft mattress, the white-haired girl tried to pull herself back to sleep, to the place where she could escape all these unhappiness and simply took a rest. Nonetheless, she failed to do so. Her clothes were soaked in sewage water, which gave her an extra pressure and an uncomfortable chill, and on top of all, she smelled awful.

Of course, though Reiko. She is the only girl in the house that no one would dare to shower her. And so she got off the bed, gathered some clean clothes and went for a nice warm shower, the only thing she needed for now.

During her journey to the bathroom, she found out that she and HiAndromon were the only two in the apartment. HiAndromon was doing his soft repairing, and her father had gone to work and left a message for her, mostly about telling her to take care of herself, and that she could take a few days off the school, if she had the need.

Not for the first time, Reiko was sunken in thoughts while streams of water hit on her shoulders and her back. She was lost in her thoughts once she thought of Akio, and couldn't figure out anything that she could do for him.

Walking out of the water she took a good look of herself in the mirror for the first time. Except for looking a bit tired, she looked fine. Her skin was in a healthy color, and nothing special could be observed. She still found it hard to believe that beneath that beautiful body reflected on the mirror was a remote bomb that could take her life in an instant. She feared death, but she felt worse when thought of Akio's suffering.

The feeling of powerlessness overwhelmed her. She fell on the floor, and started sobbing. Reiko was not the kind of people that resolved to crying to express their emotions, yet this time she really couldn't control herself.

Just when the white-haired girl thought she was going through the most despairing time, her phone rang, and the soft ringtone gave her a new direction.

It was Katsumi calling for a video meeting, so Reiko grabbed the nearest towel and covered her body, and then answered.

"Oops," Katsumi uttered when she saw the half-naked Reiko, "I bothering you?"

"No," Reiko answered with a smile, and found her voice muffled, "you called just in time."

"Have you been crying?"

"Kinda,"

"Well that's something new," Katsumi said with concern, "what's it?"

"It's nothing,"Reiko answered, although she knew it was certainly not nothing. "What about you? Why're you calling?"

"It's Akio," said Katsumi, "he didn't show up at school today, I wondered if he's with you."

Upon the mentioning of Akio, Reiko fell into silence.

"So he's not with you," Katsumi deduced, "what happened?"

"Can we meet, today?" Reiko said, though she was not answering. "And call Jun as well, if possible."

"Sure," Katsumi replied, "my place, as usual?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, see you later. Bye." With that she hung up.

Reiko leaned back on the wall, feeling tired. There's still some time before the meeting, so she quickly dressed up and went back to sleep.

* * *

Later on that day, Reiko took the train and arrived the east district a bit earlier than the meeting time. She was all by herself; HiAndromon's soft repairing was not yet finished. Reiko started to concern that HiAndromon might have taken too much severe damages lately.

Before she had taken the train, William and Shoutmon showed up and asked her if she would need protection, however insufficient Shoutmon could provide, and stated to her that he felt responsible for her. Reiko had declined their offer, nonetheless, seeing that no threat was to post to her.

She arrived at the school's front gate. It was a little while before Katsumi and Jun could join her. She looked up and saw the sun going down. The fading orange light shaded the streets. It would have been a beautiful evening had Reiko not been soaked in grave thoughts.

A pat on the back brought Reiko back from her thoughts. Turning round she her two friends.

"Are you alright?" asked Jun softly.

"You look depressed." Katsumi remarked.

"I'm fine, thanks." Reiko replied, her voice slow and hollow.

"You sure?" Katsumi questioned, "you don't look, or sound, fine. Besides, why would you have to see us if nothing's wrong?"

"Yeah, I'll admit I'm not doing well," said Reiko, "but you don't need to say it like I don't care about you guys normally."

"You know I didn't mean that."

The three of them then went straight to Katsumi's house, and more specifically Katsumi's room, where the three girls used to share all their thoughts.

There Reiko told them all the events that happened, from the chaos in the area that started all the madness, to the sewage battle the had taken place the night before. They comforted her during her sharing, and when she finished Jun suddenly burst out a question.

"I had dual with Alraumon before, and I don't remember their poison being that strong."

"Me neither," said Ultimate Brachimon.

"Are you sure that you're being poisoned?" asked Katsumi, "I mean, that could just be a trick."

"A trick," Reiko mumbled mindlessly, "but I did felt the pain when Eligia ordered Alraumon to activate the poison in me."

"Guess there's only one way to find out," said Jun, "we'll have to check you blood."

"But how?" asked Reiko, puzzled.

"I know," Katsumi suggested, "the school lab."

"What? You can do stuff like that in a school's lab?" Reiko doubted.

"Sure," Katsumi replied.

"We can only run simple test, though." Said Jun.

"Don't be such a downer," Katsumi groaned, "I was just starting to make myself sound cool."

Reiko laughed, for the first time in many hours.

"Seems like someone's getting better." Katsumi smiled.

* * *

The laboratory in the school where Katsumi, Jun and Akio were studying at was a top notch one. Not only was the laboratory great, the other facilities were also very advanced. Reiko actually expressed how much she would like to study at there.

"One contributing factor must be Akio," Katsumi teased.

They didn't waste a second once they arrived, though the three of them were the only to be in the lab. And from the looks of it, there wouldn't be any visitors to share the lab.

Very quickly Katsumi had gotten Reiko's blood simple, and Jun had put it into a machine and worked with it for a short while. After that, all that they could do was to wait for the result, which would take a fairly long while to produce.

The three of them sat by one of the empty table. Bored at first, but then Katsumi made yet another interesting suggestion.

"You know, Reiko. I always know that that there's something between you and Akio since we first met, but none of you ever talked about your past."

"I wanna know too," Jun requested, "since when were you in love with him?"

"Four years ago, I guess." answered Reiko.

"Four years?" Katsumi murmured as she counted with her fingers, "but didn't you two just started dating a few weeks ago?"

"A few weeks ago?" Jun interrupted, as she looked at Reiko with questioned eyes. "But, didn't you slept with him a few months ago?"

"Hold your enthusiasm." Said Reiko. "So what is it that you wanna hear? My past or my recent activity with Akio?"

The other two girls exchanged a look, and then both answered, "past."

"Alright," said Reiko, "I first met Akio when I was about ten years old, ever since then, we were very close. As you might have heard of, we were like brother and sister.

"Days with good fortune and joy didn't last long, though. About four years ago, something drastic happened: my parents were divorced. It came so suddenly that I couldn't handle it, and then some strange thoughts started to stir up in my mind. I was so shameful for being sad, and being a cry baby in Akio's arms, that I decided to seal up my emotions, and think only with reasons and logic, like a machine.

"Of course, no one would like to hang out with an unfeeling person. Many of my friends started to stay away from me, and eventually gave up on me. Only one person remained by my side; he never tried to talk me out of my weirdness, and never judged me. He's just there, supporting me. By then I didn't realize how much I had relied on him, and I even thought that I didn't need him. I was a mean bitch back in the days.

"Finally, a year had passed, and the time for Akio to be off to Biforst had come. I didn't really know why, but deep down I really didn't want him to leave me. And so I told him not to go, yet never stated that I needed him. And then a fight occurred, and he finally couldn't endure me. Our relationship that have years of foundation was broken in just one day.

"What was so ironic was that I thought abandoning my emotions would protect me from further sadness, but that move only enhanced it. Anyway, I got enrolled in a school in Biforst later, and eventually reunited with him. And the rest is what you all know."

"wow!" Katsumi exclaimed, slowly and staggeringly.

"Sure everyone has a past." Jun mumbled.

Reiko sighed, and then smiled, as if a huge burden was gone. "Never mention it to Akio, though. We never brought it up ever since our reunion, and there's some hidden common conclusion between us that we'd seal off the past."

"But isn't it better to just face it?"Katsumi asked.

"It's good enough for me right now." said Reiko, shaking her head.

The result of the blood test soon came to the girls, and it was provened that Reiko was as normal as any teenage girls could be. The three of them stared at the screen that showed the result, shocked and speeches as they realized that Eligia had had everyone fooled.

"Can you do one more thing for me, Jun?" Reiko requested, sounding as serious as she could ever be. "I wanna know if the tracker in Akio's digivice still works."

"Sure," answered Jun, "but what do you plan on doing if you know where Akio is?"

"I don't know for now," replied Reiko, "but I need to see him."

The time was already late when the girls left the lab. Twilight was passed and the road was dimmed in the faint orange light of the light houses. Reiko decided to stay at Katsumi's home for the night after calling her father. And so they went separate ways as Jun went back to her home and Katsumi and Reiko to theirs.

* * *

"It can't be," Jun muttered in a shaking voice once the location of Akio was founded.

"What's it?" Ultimate Brachimon asked. He went closer to Jun and took a careful look at the computer's screen. Then, even he was staggered by what he was seeing. "Oh no."


	9. Chapter 9

Three days later, Reiko, HiAndromon, William, Shoutmon and the group of starmon and pickmons were at the ruins of the isolated island, the place that Jun once called home. They entered the temple that used to keep the digi-egg of evil. There they searched all the rooms and doors for half of the day, and finally one of the pickmons found a secret passage that leaded them down underground.

As the news came to Reiko, she heart was filled with anxiety and excitement, for that passage might be the one that would took her to the under-net, the place where Akio, Metal Garurumon and dotAgumon were held captive, according to Jun.

On the day after Reiko's blood test, Jun came to her and Katsumi, and had brought her a good news of knowing Akio's location. She mentioned that the signal that Akio's digivice was emitting was coming from the under-net, the mystical place mentioned in one of Jun's family's many tales, and was said to be the deeper layer of the digital world, where evil sprites were strong.

She also mentioned that special means must be used in order to get into the under-net, such as going through a portal connected there. Since her ancestors carried the egg from the under-net, she believed that one of such portal might be found at her birth place.

So they spent three days riding on Ultimate Brachimon, until they finally reached the mysterious island.

"Your friend is a guardian," said Shoutmon as the team gathered at the passage.

"What's a guardian?" asked Reiko.

"Folk tale," William answered, "a special group of people that protects something evil far away."

"And she's the last of her kind," said Shoutmon, "it's kinda poetic."

"It's not," Reiko mumbled, "she's poor."

It was totally understandable that Jun couldn't bare to go with them; though it was her birth place, it was also a place that taught Jun what was sadness, in a harsh mean. Katsumi, on the other hand, volunteered to join the party, only to be turn down by Reiko after a lot of talking about she didn't want more people to get in danger.

"You're more than meet the eyes, too." said Shoutmon, "who would have thought that you once stood against Plutomon and his army."

"I'm not that great." said Reiko, "I'm just trying to bring my boyfriend home. Besides, HiAndromon does all the fighting."

As the group descended, they found themselves in a giant dungeon that was filled with sophisticated looking two big blocky devices that stood in the middle of the room were the most noticeable ones; they were covered in dust, which was like the rest of the other machines, and the wires that connected all the other devices together were hooked up to the two blocks, as if they were the central. The two blocks stood parallel to each other, with some sort of emitor of one's facing its counterpart on the other block.

Shoutmon and Starmon and the pickmons wiped off the thick dust that coated the room, while HiAndromon conducted a throughout research of the whole system they found.

"You said you are not... special, that you are just chasing for your lover," William murmured; his voice so quiet that Reiko almost missed his words.

"Uh... Yeah?" Reiko replied.

"At least you have a goal." said William.

"What's the matter?"

"I've been wanted by Plutomon- assuming that he's behind the whole thing- for months. All that I know was that somebody wanted the fusion loader that I found; I didn't even know what they are going to do with it. Perhaps giving up was the better option, but I just started to run away. Thinking about it now, I don't even know what was I running away from."

Reiko didn't reply; she simply smiled.

"So you found it funny, too?"

"No," answered Reiko, "I'm just glad that you are finally more open; it's like that we're becoming friends."

HiAndromon returned to Reiko after he's done checking on everything, and reported, "Everything seems to be functional, yet the long period of abundance has rendered them unstable, do you still want to operate them?"

"Yeah," Reiko answered without any hesitation.

So HiAndromon went ahead to fiddle with the machines. Dozens of blue lights flashed to life throughout the ceiling and the walls of the dungeon, while red and green lights flashed up and down on the two blocks of devices. A faint purple light started to glow in between the two blocks; the light spread wider and glow brighter by each second, and it's growth stopped once it formed a circular vortex with the distance of the two blocks as the diameter.

"Are you sure you're going to do this?" asked William, "you might not come back through this way."

"According to my analysis," stated HiAndromon, "this portal should have been able to hold itself permanently, but due to the degradation of the machines, I can only be sure that it will last for a thirty days."

"which means I have a month to find Metal and drag Akio back here." murmured Reiko.

She turned to William, and looked down on the ground, with her eyebrows dropped, and said, "Before we go, I have to be honest with you. My plan is to get Akio, once I did that, I will return here. Sorry but if you thought I could help you, like fighting against Eligia and Plutomon, you'll be disappointed."

"Reasonable," said William, "I couldn't possibly ask you for so many things."

"Alright then," said Reiko, taking a step towards the portal. "Here we go!"

She leaped forward and then disappeared in the middle of the purple vortex.

HiAndromon followed, and then William went through the portal along with all his digimons.

* * *

"I can't go on." said Akio, lying on the floor. He wiped the blood off the top of his mouth and looked up to see the massive shade of Samuru. He then relaxed and his head hit the floor.

"What's the point of it?" he asked as he tilted his head, looking at Eligia, who had been sitting aside, watching the two boys fighting each other.

"I've told you before," said Eligia, didn't bother to look at him, "you need to know what it's like to be in the field, so you and your digimons can reach another level of partnership. I was expecting more from you, you know."

Akio struggled to stand up.

"That's more like it," said the girl with the pigtails, "ready for another round~"

"Wha-" Akio only stood up so that he could leave.

Unprepared, Akio was quickly knocked out by Samuru again.

"He's learning," said Eligia, "you're not."

"He's just a waste of time," said Samuru.

"But it's true that both of our digimons lost to his," said Eligia, "we'll be needing their power."

"Give up on them, at least on him, and find others with more potential."

"That could be an option, what do you say?" Eligia asked the lying Akio. "of course, there's no refunds for quitting."

Which means that Akio wouldn't have the chance to save Reiko.

"I'll do it," the uncleared words was spoken by Akio, "however ridiculous it is, at long as you keep your words."

* * *

A sense of uneasiness took over Reiko for a second, before she snapped out of it and realized that she was standing on a peak.

"What is it?" asked HiAndromon, who was the first to notice . "Are you unaccustomed to the environment?"

"It's nothing," Reiko shook her head, " I was just thinking about Akio, and the thought of something bad happened came to me. But I'm alright now."

The view from the peak was quite shocking to Reiko. A thick layer of smog covered most of the view, yet it was not dense enough. Seeing through the semi-translucent layer of smog was a dense pack of buildings. The buildings were not very high, and most of them appeared as broken and dirty. The scene remained her of the illustrations of medieval towns she'd seen in history books.

"We should get going," said William, "it will only get hotter as noon approaches, we will get rest once we've descended far down to the forest."

Now that William mentioned it, Reiko suddenly felt the unbearable heat of the weather. She wished that she didn't come wearing her winter clothes.

Everything was fine as the team descended down the rocky path of the mountain, soon they entered the woods, where the landscape was more gentle and the ground was softer.

"Need any rest?" William asked. Reiko simply shook her head to respond.

"Then we'll keep going."

"Why can't you just show a bit of care about her," Shoutmon mumbled, "always trying to be so cool."

"That's just how he rolls," said Reiko, "shouldn't you know it better?"

"Where're we going, again?" asked one of the pickmons, it sounded like an innocent child.

"To the closest town, the Tuatare." Shoutmon answered.

"Isn't it best to return home?" another pickmon asked, again, this one was like a child. In fact, the whole group of pickmons was like a bunch of four-year-old.

"Don't know," William replied dryly, "maybe we'll get ambushed."

"So why there?" Reiko asked.

"Because there's no other place to stay."

As they ventured through the woods, their surroundings became more and more noisy. Though the woods should be a home to many wild digimons, Reiko couldn't shake off the creepy feeling that they were being watched. Some of the pickmons showed signs of worry as well, yet William and Shoutmon didn't seem to care about it at all.

The noise became more frequent and more intense as they journeyed further. Finally, William, as the lead, stopped at the middle of the forest and told Shoutmon to get ready.

"What's it?" Reiko asked.

"Nothing, really." William answered coldly as groups of Okiwamons appeared from all the directions, surrounded the team.

"I don't see it as nothing." Reiko murmured. "What do they want?"

"No idea," William answered, "they aren't going to be nice to us anyway."

As William spoke, the Okuwamons had already begun their attacks.

"Soul Crasher!" Shoutmon shouted as he took out his mic and fired a huge fire ball from it, crashing dozens of the gray stag beetles digimons in a roll.

"Ha! That's all you have got?"

HiAndromon, on the other hand, remained silent and shot down any incoming Okuwamons with accurate aiming and successfully kept any Okuwamons from approaching Reiko.

Reiko's team seemed to have an upper hand at the beginning, and she immediately suggested to escape once she saw the chance. William, however, seemed to have his own plan and insisted on fighting. Shoutmon also had no comments as if he already knew William's plan.

As the battle went on, more Okuwamons charged into battle and overwhelmed Reiko's party by the sheer advantage in numbers.

Shoutmon's right arm was caught by the jaws of a Okuwamon, though it wasn't going to be ripped off any sooner. HiAndromon had beetles sticking on almost all over himself, while Reiko was only inches behind him, unharmed, but had no more way to back off.

"Heavy Speaker!"

"Drill Buster!"

No knowing how, Reiko saw a bunch of Okuwamons being sent flying to the sky. Through the gap between the beetles, she saw three black shades from not far away. The middle one resembled a human, the left one looked like a Garurumon with a giant horn, and the right one looked like a robotic Kabuterimon.


End file.
